Where The Brave May Live Forever
by Thousandsmiles
Summary: It's the final semester of his high school life and Liam is prepping for college, attempting to keep his grades up and preparing for a war that's shimmering on the horizon. But it's Beacon Hills and things are never quiet for long. They can't leave without one last shebang right? *Eighth in my Alpha-In-Training series*
1. Chapter 1

**So I'm back with another major installment in this series! I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

"Wait is Theo playing a guitar?"

Theo rolled his eyes. "Yes Stiles I'm playing a guitar."

"He's been playing for a couple months now," Liam said. "He's actually pretty good."

Stiles turned and looked off camera. "Hey Scott, do you know Theo plays the guitar too?"

"Really?" Scott's voice came over. After a moment the alpha appeared in view.

"Maybe we can start a band," says Theo sarcastically. "Me and the Guy I Killed."

"Nah. Me and the Guy Who Killed Me," Scott refutes.

"Why do we use your name?" asked Theo.

"Because I'm the alpha," says Scott lifting his eyebrows and giving a crooked smile. Theo snorts.

"Fine."

Stiles looks between the both of them and then at Liam.

"Yes," says Liam. "That was weird."

"Right?!," said Stiles.

Scott laughed. "I'm over it." He sees Theo's face and laughs softly. "I wouldn't have let you at my back that night in he sheriff's station, when we were going to burst out past Monroe if I didn't. We didn't ask Quinn or Jiang and Tierny to help."

"I was easy collateral damage," Theo refutes, eyes hard and vulnerable at the same time. "Someone you could afford to get hurt."

Scott snorted. "Theo, collateral damage wasn't worth it if you would turn on us. You know that. You're forgiven. If you try to do it again, I'll break you in half. Clear?"

"Clear," he says though he looks like he still can't for the life of him, actually, understand what the hell just happened.

"Just to be clear," Stiles said. "Scott is the only one who has forgiven you for killing him. I don't. I really, really don't"

Stiles' statement has Theo back on even footing and he smirks at him. "Clear."

Liam relaxes from the frozen state he'd gone into and locks eyes with Scott. The alpha's eyes are soft and understanding. Liam wondered if he'd ever get to that state where you're good but not naive. Scott looks amused like he's guessed Liam's thought processes and Liam grins back at him.

Just then Stiles' phone chirps. He pulls it out and reads the message. "Got it," he said. "Derek sent them."

The atmosphere changes as they all get down to business. Liam grabs the atlas that was reposing on the side of his bed and Theo chucks a pen at him. Stiles rattles of general locations first and then more specific addresses. Liam works with the atlas while Theo notes the locations on the GPS of his phone. When the addresses are noted, Stiles gives them the additional details for the locations which consists of number of people, resources, level of training, and details about the buildings themselves if they have specific addresses. Liam sticks sticky notes while Scott on the other side does the same. When they're done, Liam leans back and eyes the pattern.

"Monroe's been busy," Theo remarked.

"Most of these groups are still in fledging states though," said Stiles.

"But not all," said Scott. "Some of them are pretty well trained. I think we might have to send out an alert to groups in the area. Tell them be prepared."

"Won't be easy," Stiles said, "Most preturnatual keep their heads down."

"We can ask Deaton," said Liam. "See if he or his sister knows anyone."

"Do that," said Scott. "I'll ask Breaden to do the same."

"What about Ethan?" asked Theo. "He'll have traveled some right? He might know people."

"I'll get Lydia to do it," said Stiles. He was engrossed with the map. "I'll see what I can dig up. There's something about this pattern that bothers me."

"I'll get Mason on it," Liam volunteers. "Fresh perspective helps right?"

"We'll send them to Peter too," said Scott, "He knows a lot of stuff and Malia might be able to get it out of him."

"True," said Stiles.

"Argent as well," said Theo. Liam nodded.

"And Deaton."

"And my dad," said Stiles. "My dad is awesome." There is a general murmur of agreement.

Scott studies the information again and then sighs. "I think that's all we can do for now. Send information as you get it okay?"

"Sure," says Liam.

"Great," says Scott. "Now I have to get back to my million and one assignments."

"Good luck!" Liam says genuinely.

"You too!" Stiles says, honestly and Liam waves at them both before Stiles cuts the call.

He glances down at the atlas and then he and Theo look at each other. Time to really get down to work.

* * *

It's the day before his final semester and Liam finds himself outside of Chris Argent's apartment complex. Everytime he comes here he feels like one of those idiot people in the horror movies who goes to check out the strange noise alone. He's not afraid of Argent, it's the sheer embarrassment he feels at checking up on someone nearly twice his age, with a high track record of being able to take care of themselves and who is very perceptive. But he wouldn't be Liam Dunbar if he didn't check up on his people so he's here. And he kinda wants to bang his head on something so he'd have a legitimate excuse not to go in.

He goes into the building though and the guard calls Argent who says to let Liam up. Liam goes up the stairs to Argent's apartment and knocks.

"It's open," Chris calls back.

Liam eases open the door. "Hey," he says.

"Hey," Chris calls back. He's sitting at the table, phone in hand. Liam goes over and sits awkwardly at the table.

"So...how's it going?" he asks and then wants to facepalm.

"I'm fine," says Argent but his attention is on his phone. He frowns slightly but a bare moment later his mouth edges up in a slight smile.

"Is everything okay?" Liam asks. He really hopes Argent isn't texting Melissa or that would be too awkward.

"Fine," says Argent. He glances up at Liam. "It's Isaac."

"Isaac? That's one of Scott's friends right? I've heard him mentioned a few times. He went to France with you right?"

Argent nodded. "He didn't want to come back with me when I did. He was supposed to be back for Monroe and the Anuk-ite actually but he got sidetracked by some wendigos but all that's over so he didn't come after all."

Liam studied Argent, stealthily took a breath to read his emotions and then haltingly offered, "Do you want him to come? You can tell him to come if you want. And if he wants."

Argent looks surprised but pleasantly so. "I don't know if he'll come."

"Well you can ask," says Liam, giving a quick shrug. "I don't mind if he's here. He's part of Scott's pack right?"

"Yes," says Argent. "He's never chosen another alpha or gone lone wolf. And I know Scott keeps in touch with him."

"It'll be fine," Liam says, knowing that bringing in new pack members is always hard. And while Isaac isn't new, he's still never met Liam, Mason or Corey and had had limited contact with Parrish. Liam didn't want to think what his reaction to Theo might Argent missed Isaac. And Scott trusted Isaac. They'd be fine.

Argent looked at him closely, read the sincerity in his face and nodded slowly. "I'll offer."

Liam nodded and Argent tapped something out in his phone and then looked up and smiled at him. "Want a soda?"

"Sure," said Liam. Argent got up, handed him a soda from the fridge, took one for himself and flopped in his couch.

"You watch documentaries?"

"I love documentaries," Liam said. He sat on the other couch and spent a pleasant evening learning about ocean creatures.

* * *

Liam kills his alarm clock when it rings in the morning. A snicker lets him know the murder doesn't go unnoticed. Liam cracks open an eye to see Theo already almost dressed. He groans.

"First day of school," Theo reminds him.

"I hate you," Liam says and shuffles off the bed.

He dresses quickly, snatches his lacrosse stick up and blinks bearily at his phone which has a new word for him. He reads the word and promptly forgets it three seconds later. He grabs his keys and heads out.

He's a zombie all the way until he reaches to school and just sort of sits in his car in the parking lot, holding onto the wheel and convincing himself he shouldn't just fall asleep right there.

"Liam?" It's Mason.

"Uh," Liam says yawning.

Mason laughs, opens the door and hauls him out. Liam comes unwillingly but has to come awake before they both fall to the tarmac. He snatches his bookbag, locks the car and then joins Mason. They walk up to the school and then pause before the main doors.

"I can't believe it's our last semester," he says.

"I know right?" Mason says. He claps Liam on the back. "Let's make it a good one."

Liam grins back at him and they walk through the doors together.

* * *

"Why am I taking AP Biology?" he groans at lunchtime, head on the table.

"Because you don't know what you want to do with your life," Mason helpfully informs him.

"I...I didn't want an answer," Liam says.

Corey laughs from where he's sitting next to Liam and takes the opportunity to try and steal his juice. Liam grabs his juice before Corey can take it but before he can go back to bemoaning his fate Nolan drops down in the seat opposite to him.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," says Liam. He sits up properly and pushes his hair out of his doesn't ask what Nolan's doing here but it must show on his face. They're co-captains but they don't really hang out together despite everything that had happened.

Nolan gives him a wry smile and then said, "Uh, I wanted to ask you a favour." He glances sidelong at Mason and Corey and they take the hint, getting up and leaving though their lunch trays stay behind.

"What is it?" Liam asks.

Nolan swallows and then lowers his voice. "Uh. Well. I've...Uh my parents, they want me to see a therapist since, uh, since I'm not sleeping well. Because, well you know….But...the thing is...Monroe...she was a guidance counselor so I..I don't really trust therapists and…" He breaks off again completely eyes looking down. He moistens his lips and continues. "But...I really can't sleep and I probably need help but I..can't go alone." He stops, eyes still not looking at Liam.

Liam blinks not ever expecting takes him a few seconds to compute that Nolan is waiting for an answer.

"Um. Yeah. Sure. I'll go with you. I'll wear headphones and everything if you don't want me hearing anything."

Nolan looks up startled and Liam gives him a gentle smile. "I know what it's like," he offers. "I didn't go through my first rodeo without nightmares and hallucinations. It's okay to need help. We all do."Nolan blinks at him and then gives back a tentative smile.

"Okay," he says after a while. "I'll text you the schedule?"

"Sure," Liam nods. Nolan nods at him and then gets up and leaves. A few moments later Mason and Corey comes back. Mason lifts and enquiring eyebrow but Liam says, "Later," and he lets it go.

* * *

There's no lacrosse practice on the first day of school. They do have a team meeting about the tryouts that will be happening tomorrow. Coach glares at all of them and reiterates that all positions will be open then stalks out the room. Liam sits back and lets Nolan do the pep talk because he's much better at that sort of thing. Liam just backs him up and says he hopes to see all of them out on the field tomorrow before dismissing the meeting.

He takes the chance to go home early because his teachers apparently don't care that it's the first day of school and has given him homework. SInce he's trying to get his grades up this semester after the chaos of the last two semesters, he's planned to make a concerted effort at his school work. After all college is literally right around the corner. He has to start working on his college applications and he's already daunted just by reading what he needs to do.

His mom is already home when he gets there and looks to be hard at work in the kitchen. Liam eyes the amount of dishes being prepared and says,

"Uh, did I miss something?"

"We're having company for dinner," his mom said. "New folks moved in two houses down. The mother came over earlier just to introduce herself and I invited them to dinner."

"Oh," said Liam. He blinks. "I should probably go and change."

"Yep," said his mom. "Call Theo and tell him not to be late."

Liam nodded and headed up the stairs to his room. He had just fininished dressing when Theo walked into the room, wearing his customary dirt from the farm. He looks to be in a grumpy mood because he's tired and not feeling to entertain company. Liam tames his hair while the chimera goes to bathe and then heads down to help his mom with the food.

He's put to work chopping the salad and when Theo comes down Macy sets him to sauté vegetables.

"Whoa!" says Dr. Geyer when he walks in and sees the operation in the kitchen.

"We're having company," Macy says brightly. Dr. Geyer nods, takes in the disgruntled look on Theo and Liam's faces and laughs.

"Cheer up boys. We have to learn to be good neighbours."

"Can we be good neighbours tomorrow?" Theo asks.

"Being good neighbours when it's convenient, defeats the purpose," Macy says sternly but still warmly.

"Well at least the foods good," Liam says and Theo has to agree.

They've just finished set the table when the doorbell rings. Macy squeaks a little and hurriedly tames her hair. Dr. Geyer, freshly showered, heads over to the door. Liam and Theo hover in the kitchen, unsure of what to do and then sort of drift towards the front door. Macy pushes past them and goes to join Dr. Geyer.

Dr. Geyer opens the door to reveal a pleasant looking woman and a tall man behind her.

"Iona!" says Macy smiling. "Nice to see you again. Come in! Come in!"

The woman smiled and came in. "Thank you so much for inviting us." She turned to her husband and said, "This is my husband Destin James and my daughter Hillary." Liam blinked as a tall willowy girl stepped through the door.

She had fine, delicate but firm features. Her eyes were a little large but a beautiful shade of green. Her lips were a soft red with a full bottom lip. Long waves of red hair tumbled down her back. She smiled, face lighting up as she was introduced to Liam's mom. She was beautiful. A sharp elbow to his side brought him out of the trance of utter awe he had entered into upon seeing Hillary.

He glared at Theo who was looking at him amusedly.

"So lovely to meet you!" his mom was saying. "This is my husband Tyrell."

"It's a pleasure,"Dr. Geyer said shaking hands with Iona and Destin. "And these are our two sons, Liam and Theo."

Liam smiled and gave an awkward wave. Beside him Theo had gone stiff as a board at Dr. Geyer's words before pasting on a smile on his face and moving forward to offer his hand.

"It's a pleasure," he said, "I hope you enjoy it here."

"Thank you!" said Iona smiling at him, clearly already charmed.

"Well," said Macy, "How about we move to the dining room and get to know each other over dinner?"

"That would be lovely," said Iona and they all trooped over to the dining room. Liam eyed Theo little worried but the chimera had lost his stiffness and seemed to be okay. When he glanced at at Liam though, his eyes were hard and had lost their customary gleam.

Laim rests a hand on his arm and asks softly, "Later?"

Theo takes a deep breath and lets it out and nods stiffly. "Later." Liam removes his hand and Theo's chemosignals calm somewhat. They hurry quickly to the dining room before the others can notice they've dropped behind.

Dinner is actually really enjoyable. Liam and Theo are seated on either side of Hillary, facing her parents. Liam's own parents take the head and foot of the table. The adults talk about the move across the states to Beacon Hills and Hillary asks the boys about school. She had actually been to school that day to pick up her schedule for tomorrow but Liam hadn't seen her. She was in his year and looked to be in a few of his classes. Between them, Liam and Theo managed to give her the rundown of how things at the school work. Well Theo does, mainly because Liam's mouth doesn't seem to be working chimera smirks at him when Hillary is not looking and Liam glares back at him.

"Liam plays lacrosse," Macy says when she notices that he's lost his tongue. Liam doesn't know whether to thank her or shake her.

"Oh I love lacrosse!" Hillary says her eyes lighting up. "Well I like to watch it. I can't play it. But I haven't been to many live games."

"Really?" says Liam. "Well you can come to the games at school. I mean, if you want. A lot of the students come."

"Yes the school team does have a lot of support from the other students," says Macy. "You can sit with me at the next game," she offers to Hillary.

"I'd love that," Hillary says smiling shyly at Mrs. Geyer.

"Good," says Macy, "But you'd have to help me cheer on our handsome and talents captain here." She winks at Liam who feels like he wants to sink beneath the table.

"Mom!" he says while Dr. Geyer and Theo laugh at him.

"You're the captain?" says Hillary looking impressed.

"Co-captain," Liam says. "Our team doesn't have one captain."

"Oh," she said, "That's interesting. But still," she leans forward, "you must be a really good player."

Liam blushed and tried to hide it. "I'm okay."

Theo snorts at this uncharacteristically humble answer and Liam glares at him. Hillary laughs at their interaction.

"So you are good!"

"Very," says Macy without remorse.

Hillary's parents laugh at the by-play and Liam tries unsuccessfully to melt through the floor.

"Go pick on Theo now," he says.

"How are they going to do that?" Theo asks. "I'm just a wonderful, hard working child who gives no trouble."

"He's also really humble," Liam deadpans.

"It's also one of my qualities," Theo agrees.

"You're just a paragon of virtue then," Hilary teases him lightly.

"Does this face look like it can do anything wrong?" Theo says tilting his head.

"Yes," says Iona smiling at him and Theo clutches at his chest as if he's been shot.

"Ouch Mrs. James!"

Both families break into laughter and Liam thinks that the evening wasn't so bad afterall.

* * *

Parrish and Sheriff Stilinski are parked on patrol in one of the main streets when the radio crackles and voice says:

"We have a 000-BH in the preserve."

The Sheriff blinks. "What the hell is a zero-zero-zero-Boy-Henry?" he asks Parrish.

"That's the strange-things-are-happening-in-Beacon-Hills code," The deputy admits with a grimace.

"We have a code for that?" says Sheriff Stilinski in disbelief.

"We do now," says Parrish. He starts the car and the Sheriff gives a sigh and tells the operator that they're responding.

"When was I going to hear about this?"asks the Sheriff.

"Well to be honest,sir I think everybody was kinda hoping we'd never have to use it."

The Sheriff sighs. "I can't believe we've come to this."

"It is Beacon Hills," Parrish says.

"That it is," The Sheriff says. "That it is."

* * *

When they finally spot the lights of the other patrol that called it in, They pull over on the side of the road and head over to where the other officer is waiting for them.

"Jones," says the Sheriff, "What's happening?"

"That," says Jones, pointing his flashlight at something on the preserve.

The Sheriff squints through the trees until he sees what Jones is illuminating.

"Oh my gosh," he says involuntarily.

"Shit," Parrish murmurs after him as they take in the gruesome scene.

* * *

Liam is in the middle of laughing at some joke Destin is telling when he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He frowns and pulls it out enough so that he can glance at the screen. He freezes as he sees who sent him the text and then says,

"Uh, I'll be right back."

Theo shoots him a look having caught the tension in his voice. Liam tells him to stay put with a glance and hurries into the laundry room where he can read the Sheriff's text in peace.

 _SS to EVERYONE in BH: We have a problem. LD you'll want to see this._

 _Liam: See what?_

 _SS: You have to see it. CA you too._

 _CA: On my way._

 _MH: So am I. Give me an address._

 _LD: I'm in the middle of a dinner with guests. TR and I can't get away._

 _SS: Get here as soon as you can. We need your noses._

There was a pause and then a blip as a picture popped up on hs screen.

"What the freaking hell?" Liam blurts out.

* * *

 _ **I hope I've gotten you all excited! Tell me what you think!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**I hope you all enjoy this one!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

"What the freaking hell?" Mason says.

"Wow," says Corey.

They both stand behind the Sheriff and Parrish and stare up what Deputy Jones had found.

"That's, that's," Mason says.

"A guy in a tree," says Corey.

The guy isn't in the tree like he climbed into the tree. He was in the tree like the bark had flowed over him and fused him into the tree. The body hung limply from where it hadn't been fused into the tree, blood running down the trunk from where the bark had squeezed the young man into itself. The most horrible thing was the strips of white bark that whose where the young man had attempted to claw his way out of his prison. His nails were blood and broken. Blood dripped out of his mouth and out the split skin. His induction into the tree had not been painless.

The Sheriff hadn't allowed anyone to get close to the tree in case the same thing happened to someone else.

"How did that happen?" asked Corey.

"How am I supposed to know?" Sheriff Stilinski snapped. "Last I checked trees didn't eat people."

There was a sudden crunching sound and everyone's head snapped over to the tree where the young man's body was crushed further back into the tree truck.

"It's still happening!" Mason said horrified.

"What do we do?" asked Parrish.

"We can't lose the body," said the Sheriff.

"How are we going to save it?" asked Mason. "The tree has it."

"An axe?" asked Jones.

"I doubt an axe will do anything," said Argent startling them all as he appeared behind them.

"We have to do something," Parrish said.

"No you have to do something," Argent corrects. There is a moment of silence as Parrish takes that in and then nods.

"Jones," said the Sheriff, "We'll handle it from here." Jones eyes them all, realises that they're going to do stuff he doesn't actually want to know about and nods and heads back to his cruiser. When Jones is safely away the Sheriff nods to Parrish who strips down and then triggers his fire. He attacks the bark that's holding the body and the tree reacts, the bark constricting tighter but Parrish is a hellhound and hellfire scorches the wood until it burns through enough that he can pull the body out from the tree.

Parrish staggers back with the body and hurriedly outs his fire. He still leaves some burns on the body though. The Sheriff grimaces as the body is dumped at his feet. Argent approaches the tree with his shotgun and Parrish walks up behind him for backup. But all their caution is for nothing. The tree looks normal now, if one excuses the blood still smeared over it's bark. Argent pokes the tree with his gun but it doesn't react.

After a moment of deliberation Argent calls Corey over. He nicks Corey's hand with a knife and presses the blood to the tree but the tree still doesn't react.

"Uh, did you kill it?" asked Mason.

"I don't know," Parrish says.

"So Deaton," says the Sheriff and Mason sighs.

"Yeah Deaton."

* * *

Liam manages to escape dinner by claiming Mason called him for a best friend emergency. His mom frowned at him but let him go. He apologised to his guests, gave Theo an eyes-only apology and dashed from the house.

He arrives at the scene the same time as Deaton does and they walk over to the crime scene together.

"Wow," he says as he takes in the dead body and the blood smeared tree. "What happened?"

"We have no clue," Mason says. "Can you get a scent?"

Liam nods and circles the tree cautiously, questing for a scent.

"Only one," he says after a moment. "The victim I think. It's hard to get more scents over all the blood and terror and smoke. I smell Parrish and Corey too."

"Argent smeared my blood on the tree to see if that would wake it up," Corey told him.

"Do you see anything when you go invisible?" Liam asks him. Corey blinks and then vanishes.

After a moment he reappears. "No. I, I don't think so."

"Did you see something?" Deaton asked.

"Maybe a haze?" Corey said, "Surrounding the tree. I'm not sure. It's not much.. Just, like the heat of a fire?"

Deaton nods and moves towards the tree. He places a hand on the bark while everyone makes some sound of protest.

The tree doesn't eat him.

After a moment Deaton removes his hand and says, "There was magic here."

"Magic?" said the Sheriff.

"Like the Darach?" Chris asks.

"No," said Deaton. "This is no druidic magic. But I can't tell what it is."

"What did the magic do?" asked the Sheriff.

"I think it's what made the tree like this," said Deaton. "The other alternative is that it was a dryad and that Parrish sent it dormant."

"How do we know?" asked the Sheriff.

Deaton looked at him. "We don't."

Liam goes questing around the area with Argent who looks for more mundae tracks but together they find nothing.

The Sheriff rubs his hand over his face. "I think it's time we call in the crime scene techs now," he said. "We'll put a barrier around the tree in case it is a dryad, whatever the hell that is, so it doesn't snatch anyone else."

"That would probably be best," Deaton says. He hacks off a little piece of bark from the tree and puts it in a clear bag. "I'll study this and see if I can find anything else."

"Thanks," said the Sheriff and then he shoos them all away as he calls in the crime scene.

* * *

Liam drives back home, watches the lights and signs. This was going to be...interesting. Alternatively, it was going to be hell.

He walks into his house to find his parent sitting in the living room. Theo is nowhere to be seen but Liam can hear his heartbeat from upstairs. His parents quirk eyebrows at him in an identical fashion.

"What happened?" he said.

Her mother jerked her head upstairs to indicate Theo and said, "That one just dropped his cheerful face and flew up the stairs as soon as the James' left."

Liam sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, much like the Sheriff had done earlier. "Uh, I was going to talk to him."

"About what?" asked Dr. Geyer. "Because I'd like to know what set him off."

Liam cringed. "Uh, introducing us as your sons?"

There was a pause and then Macy opened her mouth. Liam made a frantic shushing motion. "I'll handle it."

There was another pause and then his parents nodded.

Liam ran upstairs and into the room he shared with Theo. The chimera was sitting on his divan, strumming haphazardly at his guitar, jaw set in a firm line and eyes wild, blank and dangerous.

Liam sat on his bed and waited.

After a moment, Theo said, "When I came here, you told me not to even touch your parents or you'd kill me. Or Mason would."

"I did," Liam said.

"I killed your alpha. I hurt Lydia, I killed Josh and Tracy. I manipulated you into trying to kill Scott. I even turned the girl you liked against you for a bit."

"You did," Liam agreed.

"Then why the heck are you letting your parents run around calling me their son!" His eyes are yellow and wild, rage and helplessness are surging through his eyes. He lets go of his guitar before he can crush it.

"Does it bother you that much?"

"I want to know why it's not bothering you!"

"We always listen to mom in this house remember?" Liam remarks. Theo growls and clenches his fists as his claws come out.

"Don't give me that shit! Your parent have no idea who I am! They have no idea what I am!"

"True," said Laim. He takes a few breaths because he can't, can't be too emotional at all here. It's all too easy for him to slip into anger and if he does right now that would be very bad. "But I know who you are. I know what you are. They trust my judgement."

"Don't give me that either. That's enough for someone to live here but to, to adopt them? I'm a murderer Liam. I'm a monster. I'm barely even human! You know that! You know that!"

Liam pauses and then says, "You save my life twice with the Hunt, you helped Scott fight the Hunt, you saved my life twice with Monroe, you gave Gabe a peaceful end, you saved Mason in the tunnels. You tore us all apart. But we came back stronger. We destroyed you. And you came back better. You were psycho. You still are, honestly," he adds becuase Theo would know he's lying. "But the Theo that came out from the ground, that Theo would never hurt my parents. He'd never hurt someone innocent. You, you can choose now, what path you want to take."

"You don't know what I'm still capable of," Theo told him,voice dark and shaking.

"I know about Schrader," Liam says and Theo's eyes widened in shock.

"What?" said Liam, "You guys got accosted right outside where he was holding you all. You didn't think the deputies wouldn't search the place? He wasn't dead. Still isn't actually. But I'm pretty sure he lost his eyes and they had to fight to keep him alive but he made it. I think he's like a vegetable now."

Theo is still staring at him in shock.

"Theo I knew that before I even asked you to live here."

"What?!" Theo croaks out. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nobody liked Schrader," Liam said, shrugging, "And he hurt Lydia."

"That's...Liam, you don't know everything I've done."

"I know you paid for it," Liam said.

"I, I haven't," Theo says. "This isn't just about my sister."

"I know," Liam says. "Do you think we're stupid? I mean, okay I'm dense about some things but remember, we have Stiles? And Lydia? And Scott isn't an idiot. Once we knew who you were back then well, we could tell. And when Stiles does research," Liam shrugged. "We know you weren't a poor, little brainwashed child under the Dread Doctors. We know you were a willing partner not a pawn. We know you used to help them get subjects for their chimeras sometimes. Did you really think Scott didn't know, that Stiles didn't know, that I didn't know? Did you think Lydia couldn't feel all the death hovering under your skin?"

"Why?" His eyes flare again and he clenches his hands so that blood drips from between his fingers. "Why?!" his voice is half-roar.

"Everybody deserves a second chance," Liam says. "Do you know how many people Deucalion killed? And how many deaths he was indirectly responsible for? Do you know how many people Peter killed? But they got second chances too. And they did well with them. Actually Peter got a third chance." Liam shrugged again. "My alpha has a thing with taking in strays and personally I think he has a sixth sense about the people who benefit best from those second chances."

"It's still not fair to your parents," Theo says.

"If, when they find out they want to disown you then fine," says Liam. "But as we've found out with Peter, family helps."

Theo barks out a laugh. "I should have known there was a secondary reason. Scott is rubbing off on you."

"Stiles too," Liam sighs. "But honestly, I think the fact that you've changed will matter to my parents. I've actually already talked a little to dad about it. He knows you've done some terrible things." Liam pauses. "And since he's super smart I won't be surprised if he's guessed that you've killed. Actually, given how you reacted to Grandpa George saying you might kill my mom, there's a high probability that he has guessed. But he called you his son anyway. He did that while George was here and he did it again tonight."

"He what?" Theo said startled.

"You were kinda busy trying to kill George at the time," Liam explained. "Probably why you didn't hear it."

"So that's why you're so calm about this," said Theo. "You've had time to think about it."

"That too," Liam admits with a wry grin and the chimera huffs a laugh.

He slumps back. I still don't think it's fair to them," he says.

"Well," said Laim. "Honestly I don't think you and I can change their minds. I don't think Stiles with a powerpoint presentation will change their minds. So we're screwed."

Theo lets out a choked laugh. He flops back onto the divan. After long moment he said, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"That I knew?"

"Yeah."

"What did it matter?" Liam said. "I mean, okay it mattered when I heard it but I thought it through and well, I figured Scott was right about the second chances thing. He gave me a chance after I nearly killed him."

"You're his beta," Theo said.

"That doesn't change the fact that I tried to kill him," said Liam. "And you saved his beta so… you know, kinda cancels out."

"But…"

"Dude!' says Liam. "Everybody forgives you. Now you just have to forgive yourself. And I get how not-easy that is. But that's for you to do."

"I still don't get it," said Theo. "Why do you forgive me?"

"Because…" Liam tugs at his hair in frustration before remembering something Lydia had said. He modifies it a little and says, "Because not all monsters have to stay monstrous."

Theo sits up and Liam lets his eyes glow and catches the other boys eyes. Theo's eyes glow in response and Liam says very clearly, "Everyone deserves a second chance. This is yours. Take it."

After a moment. Theo nods slowly. "Okay. Okay. Fine."

Liam lets his eyes return to normal and then flops back on his own bed. "So in other news, we have a man-eating tree."

"What the hell," Theo says flatly.

* * *

"I'll probably be there in a week or so," Isaac says. "I have some stuff to finish up here."

"Okay. Just give me a call when you know for sure. I'll pick you up."

There's a pause and then Isaac says, "You really want me to come back to Beacon Hills?"

"I don't mind," Chris tells him. "But if you don't want to come, you don't have to."

There's another pause and then Isaac says, "I might as well see who this little beta of Scott's is."

Argent laughs. "Tell me when you're ready to come down."

"Sure." Isaac hangs up and Argent smiles fondly at the phone before pocketing it and shouldering his gun. Time to go do some exploring in the preserve.

* * *

"So like there are a billion myths and references about man-eating trees," said Mason. He has a book in one hand and his phone in the other and he's referring to them both. Liam blinks and then looks at Corey who shrugs.

"Anything that helps us?" Liam asked.

Mason gave an exasperated sigh. "Not really. All the trees that I've come across are already it's out of various mythologies and a whole lot of sci-fi."

"Well Deaton said it was magic so we can probably ignore the sci-fi," said Corey.

"But sometimes a lot of those sci-fi stories come from people who know something," Mason refuted.

"What about the dryad angle?" Liam asked. "I researched but...I didn't see anything about dryads eating people."

"Me either," said Mason, "We'll talk to Deaton later. See if he found out anything from that tree bark he took." Liam nodded and was about to reply when he saw Hillary walking down the hall.

"Uh, I'll talk to you guys later."

"Wha…?" said Mason. Liam dashed past them leaving the two of them staring at him as he headed over to Hillary.

"Uh, hey," he said when he approached her.

Her eyes lit up. "Liam!" she said. "Hi."

"Hey," he said again trying to tame the grin on his face. "So, uh, are you finding your way around the school easily?"

"Somewhat!" she laughs. "It's a little daunting being the new girl, especially in your senior year."

"I know how it is. I mean, not moving in your senior year but I transferred schools so…" He broke off. "Uh do you want me to show you around?"

"Would you? I mean, it won't be any trouble right?"

"No! No trouble," Liam says quickly.

"Hey Liam," said Mason, "Who is this?"

"Uh, guys this is Hillary James," he said, "They just moved to Beacon Hills. She lives two doors down from me. Hillary these are my friends Mason and Corey."

"Nice to meet you," she said holding out both hands to either boy. Mason took her hand and shook it, a sly smirk on his face.

"Nice to meet you to," he said.

Corey shook her other hand and smiled and said, "Hey."

"Um so which class do you have now?" Liam asked Hillary.

"Uh, AP Biology," she said.

"Great," said Mason. "So do we. Are you any good at it because Liam would definitely need help.

"Mason!" Liam hissed and Mason ducked away laughing.

"I'm pretty good at Biology actually," said Hillary smiling at Liam. "I'd love to help if you don't mind the new girl as a lab partner."

"Uh. Sure. No I don't mind," Liam stammered.

"Great!" said Hillary smile widening into something bright and blinding.

"Liam why don't you show her to the class," said Mason. "I have something to talk to Corey about."

"You do?" said Corey. Mason tugged at his arm and then Corey said, "Right! Yeah, we have something to talk about!" Mason dragged him off and Liam sighed.

"Uh, class is this way," he said.

"Thanks," said Hillary, smiling shyly at him. "Your friends are nice," she said after a moment.

"They're the bane of my existence," Liam muttered. When she cocked an eyebrow at him he laughed. "But they're great," he added.

Hillary laughed. "I hope I find friends like yours. I'm not great at making friends."

"Really?" said Liam. "I'm not great either but Mason is the best so…"

Hillary chuckled. "So the answer to bad friendship making skills is to find a Mason," she said.

"Absolutely," Liam said grinning at her.

"I'll keep it in mind." she said, grinning back at him.

* * *

"Clear!" Dr. Geyer yelled and pushed the defibulizer onto the patient's chest. There was a flurry of movement.

"No response!" a nurse said.

"Give them adrenaline!" Dr. Geyer orders. The adrenaline is administered while two other doctors pump a bag to force oxygen into the patient's' lungs. When a shockable rhythm is obtained Dr. Geyer, applies the defibulizer again but the patient's heartbeat stubbornly refuses to normalize. They fight for the man's life for another agonizing fifteen minutes but in the end he flatlines.

Dr. Geyer sighs and checks hi watch and then calls the time of death. The while medical team slumps in dismay and then begin to remove the medical apparatus from the body. Melissa McCall pulls the sheet up over the body and then steps back to let the attendants carry it down to the morgue. She strips of her gloves and throws them into a bin and heads over to wash her hands and calm herself. It's never easy losing someone.

As she's drying her hands of on a paper towel, movement catches in eye in a shadowed corner. She moves towards the odd motion and something flickers a little. When she arrives at the corner, there's nothing there. She frowns and looks around and then decides her mind must be playing tricks on her as she's coming down off the adrenaline high.

* * *

 _ **Let me know what you think!**_

 _ **Have a nice day/night!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Yay another chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

"Are you staying back for tryouts?" Liam asked Mason but Mason shook his head.

"I'm going to the AC, remember? Theo is going to meet me there."

"Oh right!" said Liam. "See you later then."

He and Corey headed of to the locker room to grab their gear while Mason headed of to the animal clinic. When they came out on the field, Corey nudged Liam.

"Did you invite her?" Liam looked up to see Hillary sittin on the bleachers along with a gaggle of other interested persons.

"No," said Liam.

"You're blushing," Corey observed.

"I'm not," said Liam.

Corey snickered.

"Alright you little buggers!" coach yelled. "Get over here!"

The two of them ran over to huddle with the rest of the team and listen to Finstock rant and rave.

* * *

"Knock, knock," said Mason as he walked into the animal clinic.

"I would say come in," said Deaton, "But.."

Mason grinned. "Hey. I came to see if you got anything from the bark you took."

"Ahh," said Deaton. He glanced to make sure there were no more customers and then he and Mason went into the examination room. Deaton pulled out the bark and placed it in a dish.

"From all my initial examinations," said Deaton, "It's definitely not dryad bark. There's residual magic but to be honest I can't identify what it has it roots in."

"Huh," said Mason, "That's interesting. I mean, someone has the ability to create man-eating trees?"

"I don't think this is a true man-eating tree," said Deaton, "As far as I know, those trees are entities unto their own. This bark should have should signs of being other of it were a true man-eating tree. Which leads me to believe that this may be some sort of nature magic."

"But if it's not a true man-eating tree," said Mason, "Why make one?"

"I don't know," said Deaton, "It could be a distraction for something larger."

"That's not comforting at all," said Mason. "Shit we have this stuff with Monroe already."

"I'll do some more research," Deaton said, "And I'll try to reach out to my sister, she's more advanced on the nature magic side."

"Okay," said Mason, "Keep us posted alraight?"

"Of course," said Deaton.

Mason left, stopping to pet a few of the animals in the cages before he went and slipping a few some treats while Deaton shook his head at him.

* * *

He's about ready to turn around and go back home when he spots the body. It's right on the side on the jogging path and Argent figures that's a pretty good answer as to how the victim got caught. He's half encased in bark, bones cracked and punching out of the skin when the tree had crushed into him as it tried to force the victim into itself. It looks like the body's been there for a few hours. Argent carefully examines the scene and then calls the Sheriff.

"It's Argent," he says when the Sheriff picks up, "I've found another body in the woods. Another tree." There's a harsh sound as the sheriff no doubt forces back some expletives and then he says:

"Okay. Give me the address." Argent does so and hangs up.

* * *

"You're sucking," Corey tells him.

"I know!" Liam moans.

"Stop worrying about her!" Corey said.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Liam said.

"You know most people act better when their crush is watching," Corey says amusedly. "You weren't like this for Hayden."

"We kinda had life and death situations," Liam said, "And before that she wanted to punch me in the face."Corey thinks this over.

"Alright, if you don't play better I'm calling Scott and telling him you lost your captaincy."

"What!" Liam hissed. "Seriously? That's like tattling to my parents." There's a pause when Liam realizes what he just said and promptly groans.

"Besides," Corey says eye lighting up as if he just had a stroke of genius, "If you don't be captain we can't arrange lacrosse games to handle preternatural stuff. Because let's face it, lacrosse games are never normal." Liam digests this and then sighs.

He closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths and murmurs, "The sun, the moon, the truth."

He feels himself settle and he re-opens his eyes in time for coach to yell:

"What are you doing Dunbar? Taking a nap?"

"No Coach!" he yells back and runs forward to snatch the ball and shoot it at the goal. They all watch the ball sail through the air and then it smacks into the net.

"Yes!" Liam cheers and turns to see Corey grin at him. Nolan gives him a thumbs up and Liam jogs to the back of the line. He turns to see Hillary grinning widely at him and smiles back but manages to keep his head in the game. After practice coach narrows his eyes at them and then says he'll announce the Captain tomorrow. He dismisses them and they trug off to shower.

When they get out, they find Hillary waiting for them in the parking lot.

"Hey you guys were great!" she says but she's looking at Liam. Corey snorts under his breath and Liam is reminded of the all the times he really hated Corey.

"Uh thanks," Liam says.

"It was fun watching the game in real life," she continues happily and Liam says:

"You'll love a real game then or a scrimmage."

"I can't wait!' Hillary says and then says, "Anyway I gotta go. Mom will want me home soon becuase she secrety scuks at cooking."

"Sure, see you tomorrow," Liam says.

"See you around," Corey adds.

She waves sunnily at them and walks off.

Liam and Corey are about to head to their respective cars when their phone's chips. Liam frowns and fishes his phone out of his pocket.

SS to EVERYONE in BH: New tree victim. JP and I are here, trying to figure out how to get the body out without burning it. CA with us.

LD: Give us the address. On our way.

He calls his mom to tell her he's studying by Mason and then he and Corey heads off to the crime scene. Theo's truck pulls up a few seconds after they've parked and he joins them as they all trot up the jogging path.

"Woah,"Theo murmurs as he catches sight of the tree. He'd seen the picture of the first victim of course but seeing it in real was something else. There was a sickening crushing sound as the tree pulled more of the body in. Liam grimaces and video calls Mason.

"Should we risk attacking it when the magic is still active?" Liam asks when Mason explains what Deaton had told him.

"I'm gonna say no," said Mason.

Parish sighs. "I'll do my best not to burn it again." He starts to strip before triggering his fire. This time he attacks the bark alone, enough so that the body can be pulled free before damping the flames and tugging at the corpse.

It takes a little work but eventually they manage to get the corpse free of the tree.

"Shit," breathes the Sheriff, running a hand through his hair.

Theo takes the time to quest around for scents. He finds none and so turns his attention to the tree itself.

"Notice anything?" Liam asks him.

"No," he says. "The dread doctors dealt with blending science and the preternatural so they knew a lot about magic but even they didn't know anything. One thing though, whatever's doing this? It's hella strong."

"That's really not what I wanted to hear," Liam says.

"You're not the only one," the Sheriff says.

* * *

Melissa was hoping for a quiet end of her double shift when an ambulance comes in with a man who looks to have been brutally attacked with a sharp object of some kind. Personally she can't understand how he's still alive because he should by all rights be dead. Long, deep slashes litter his body and his face is a mess, cut up with a broken nose and busted mouth. She rushes around the gurney with the other nurses and the ER doctors as they work to stop the bleeding but really, it's too late, he's been bleeding for too long and his injuries and ridiculously severe. He dies about five minutes after he's rushed into the ER.

The doctor calls out the time of death and they pull the sheet over the man's body. Melissa takes a deep breath and strips off her gloves. She goes to wash her hands again and is returning to her station when she sees a man standing in the corridor ahead of her. He's standing still, holding himself strangely and she calls out to ask him if he's okay. He half-turns to looks at her and then walks through the corridor wall.

Melissa blinks and then rushes to the spot. There's no one there. She looks for the closest door and goes through it into the room beyond and looks around but there's no one there.

"What?" she says frowning.

* * *

Deputy Farrell and his current shift partner Deputy Marks are patrolling the late night streets of Beacon Hills when sudden motion causes them to break to a stop. There's a figure in a black hoodie stumbling back into the road but what's really surprising is the sword in its hand. The figure launches forward in the next second and both deputies watch in shocked horror as she slashes at a woman who's on the edge of the road. The sword goes straight through the woman but instead of blood spraying everywhere the woman literally vanishes.

The deputies unlock themselves from their frozen state and jump out the car aiming guns at the figure.

"Stop right there!" Farrell orders. The figure turns and he can see that under the hoodie there's some sort of silver mask. Then the figure whirls and runs away. They both fire but the figure is fast. They hop back in the car and proceeds to chase the figure through the streets while calling for backup but when they round a corner the figure had turned into, it's disappeared.

* * *

"What happened?" Liam asked as he and the other crowded into the Sheriff's office. They had

ended up going by Mason's house anyway and had just been debating whether or not to spend the night there when the Sheriff had called them.

The sheriff looked to where Farrell and Marks were sitting on the couch in his office. Liam walked over to them.

"What happened?"

"We were out patrolling," Farrell said. "All of sudden someone is stumbling into the road in front of us so we stop. There's a woman on the side of the road and this person who we stopped for, just slices straight through her with this freaking sword that they have."

"A sword?" said Mason, eyebrows going up.

"But that wasn't the weirdest part," Farrel says. "When they sliced through the woman? It's like she just disappeared. There was no blood, no nothing. Not a trace that she'd been there. But we followed that figure, the one with the sword for a few blocks until it disappeared."

"Into thin air?" asked Mason.

"No," said Farrel. "We lost sight of them when they turned a corner. When we made it around, they weren't there anymore."

"Did you chase them on foot?" Theo asked.

"No in the car," said Marks.

Laim exchanges a look with Theo. Who or whatever they'd been chasing had been fast.

"How much of a head start they had on you?" Theo asks.

"Not much," Marks says, "We were pretty close to them the whole time but when they swung that corner, they were just gone."

"Did you get a look at their face?" Liam asks.

"No they were wearing a hoodie," said Farrel, "But they had a mask under the hoodie too. I saw it cause it was silver and reflected the streetlights."

"What kind of sword was it?" the Sheriff asked.

"What?" asked Farrel.

"What it a katana?" the sheriff asks. "The thin Japanese swords."

Liam blinks as he realises where the Sheriff is going with this. If the oni were back they were in deep shit. He'd only ever heard stories of what happened with the nogitsune and he'd been properly terrified.

"No," Mark speaks up. "More like those swords knights carry in movies."

"A broadsword," Mason says. He googles on his phone for a moment and then holds out a picture for them to see.

"Yes," Mark nods. "Like that."

"Okay," says Liam. He turns to Sheriff. "We need to know where this happened."

* * *

"Why do bad things always happen on a school night?" Mason asks when they pull up to the scene of the possible-murder. "Why can't it ever happen on a week-end?"

"Because bad things don't care about your grades," Theo tells him dryly.

"They could be a little more considerate," Mason grumbles. Liam actually agrees and he doesn't even like school.

He and Theo goes to the spot where their mysterious figure had cut down someone and take deep breaths. It's a road so a lot of exhaust fumes are floating around but after a moment Liam catches a faint scent.

It's strange, almost metallic.

"Do you get that?" Liam asks. "That metallic scent?"

Theo's eyes flare after a moment and then he nods. "Faint though," he says. "The gunshots the deputies fired doesn't help either."

Liam grimaces in agreement. But they both manage to follow the scent down the road until they come to the corner where the figure had vanished. The scent trail is gone too.

"Shit," Theo says.

But Liam is still focusing on the scent. It's slightly stronger here as if the figure had paused for a moment. After a moment he says in a strange voice. "I think, I think it's a woman."

* * *

 _ **How's the pacing working for you guys? Is it too slow? I know there's not a lot of action going on right now.**_


	4. Chapter 4

**The plot thickens. Also some action.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

Morning finds them in the morgue. Liam wonders what if says about his life that he knows the way to morgue better than he knows the rest of the hospital.

"So this came in last night," Melissa said. "This one's a little…" She trailed off and opened the unit and flipped back the sheet.

Liam and the others all jerk back a little. The body looked awful. The smell didn't help either.

"Wow," said Mason, "This is some serial killer shit."

Large slash marks littered the body, gaping open almost obscenely. The face wasn't recognizable.

"Do they know what the weapon was?" Theo asked.

"No," said Melissa. "Some sharp object of some kind but it doesn't quite match any knife schematic."

Corey goes invisible and then reappears. "Nothing," he says.

"When and where did this happen?" Liam asked.

"Around nine last night, you'd have to ask the Sheriff where," Melissa said. "Cause of death is the wounds though. He didn't die from anything else."

"At least that's good to know," Mason muttered. "But what are the odds of a regular serial killer showing up when we have man-eating tree and women who disappear people?"

"That's what I thought too," Melissa admitted. Then she hesitated and said, "I haven't said anything before but I saw a man yesterday in the corridor of the hospital and when I called out to ask him if he was okay he kinda looked at me and then just walked through the wall."

"What?" asked Mason.

"Now I have definitely not given up on ghosts because, well, werewolves and honestly this is a hospital. I don't actually know any hospitals that don't have a ghost story or two attached to them. But I thought I'd mention it."

"Where did he vanish?" Theo asked. "Your possible ghost?"

Liam and Theo went off to the ghost spot while Mason and Corey stayed behind to examine the body a little bit more.

* * *

"Seriously," Liam grumbles, "Ghosts now? What do we do about ghosts?"

"Exorcise them?" Theo says reasonably.

"I wonder if Deaton knows how?" Liam says.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Theo says.

"As long as they don't start reenacting poltergeist I'm good," Liam says.

"With your luck," Theo says, "That's exactly what will happen."

"Don't you dare jinx us," Liam tells him. "I don't want ghosts. We have enough on our plate."

They eventually reach the spot in the corridor and spend time sniffing around the corridor even though it's a long shot. And then Laim ducks his head and glows his eyes and searches to see if he can see anything that way. Scott says that sometimes preternaturally sensitive things can show up. He searches carefully while Theo runs interference for him, but he doesn't see anything. They discreetly knock on the wall to see if there's the faint chance of a secret doorway but the entire wall sounds uniform. They shrug at each other and head back down to the morgue to report their findings.

* * *

By the time they've arrived at school, Mason has obtained the entire file, whatever the department has put together, on the latest murder, in addition to the two victims of the trees and is completely absorbed in it. Liam surmises that either he'll have solved the cases by the end of the school day or have gone into a research trance.

The school days is relatively uneventful except for his AP Biology class where Mason and Corey spend the entire period laughing at him while he talks to Hillary. She does turn out to be surprisingly efficient in Biology and seems to have the ability to make people understand what she's talking about almost instantly. Liam begins to believe he might actually pass AP Biology. Mrs. Finch gives him a look whilst he's working on a question. She's never quite sure how to treat them all now. They know her secret and she knows theirs.

* * *

When school ends, Liam breathes a sigh of relief. There's no lacrosse practice today and Coach had decided to give out the results of the tryouts at the next practice instead. However today is the first of Nolan's therapy sessions. He meets Nolan in the parking lot and gets into his car. (He'd gotten a drop from Theo and then Mason this morning so he didn't have his car.)

It's almost a half hour drive to get to the therapist's office and Nolan is tense and anxious the whole drive and Liam wavers between asking him if he's okay and not wanting to say anything and embarrass him. He finally settles for an inquiring glance and Nolan gives him a short nod in response.

When they've arrived, Nolan gives his name to the receptionist and they they both walk in when she waves them on. The therapist, a man by the name of Dr. Hal Carpenter, greets Nolan and then stops short when he sees Liam.

"Um," he begins.

"This is my friend, Liam," Nolan says. "He's going to stay with me."

The therapist blinks and then nods. "If you wish. Are you sure you'll be comfortable discussing intimate details while he's here through?"

"Yes," Nolan nods.

"I'll have on headphones too," Liam explains. Dr. Hal nods and Liam thinks it's a point in his favour that he didn't insist that Liam leave.

He puts on his headphones, despite the fact that he'll be able to hear what's being said anyway, and sets to work on his homework. The first meeting doesn't go too badly, it's mostly Hal trying to get a handle of what Nolan's problems seem to be. When Nolan explains about Monroe, he gets an 'ahh' look and glances at Liam, suddenly understanding why he's there.

Nolan's nightmares are pretty ingrained and Liam winces. He remembers what it was like to be that frightened of something. Of course it's difficult to really explain what was causing his nightmares without saying stuff like the beast and werewolves but Nolan handles it pretty well, managing to put most of the trauma on Monroe's shoulders and calling the library thing an animal attack.

When their hour is up, Dr. Hal lets Nolan go with some homework to track the frequency of his nightmares and what they were about, along with any possible triggers. Liam tugs off his headphones and nods at him. Dr. Hall walks them out to the front door.

"You okay?" he asks Nolan as they head for the door.

"Yeah," Nolan said. He's still tense but Liam figures that's to be expected.

They walk out the door Dr. Hal is holding open for them and Nolan heads to his car but stops when Liam doesn't follow. Liam nodded to Theo's truck and Nolan looks startled.

"What?" said Liam, "If something happened we'd backup right?"

Dr. Hal, still standing at the door, looks really surprised and glances from Liam to Nolan. Nolan blinks and then smiles a little.

"Thanks," he says genuinely. Some more of the tension leaks out of his body and he gets into his car while Laim jogs of to the truck. They wait patiently for Nolan to drive out first and then they pull out of the lot, smiling at Dr. Hal who is still looking at them like he's suddenly realizing just how deep seated Nolan's issues are. He's also clearly wondering how to tell Liam he also needs therapy.

"It's not paranoia if it's really happening," Liam says under his breath and Theo laughs.

Mason wants us at the sheriff's station," Though said, "To go over the cases."

Liam nodded but just then his phone rang.

"Hey mom," he said. "What do you want?" He listens for a moment and then says, "Ysah sure." His mom hangs up and he says, "She wants me to get some stuff by the store. Why don't you drop me of at the store and I'll just catch a taxi or the bus back to the house? If you guys aren't done by then I've drive back over to the station."

"You sure?" Theo asks and Liam drops him off to the store and heads over to the station while Liam grabs a trolley and goes in search of the long list his mother had texted him.

* * *

It's chaotic in the Sheriff station. Sheriff Stilinski looked over his office with a feeling of despair. He's been slightly deposed. Mason has files everywhere and the cork board behind him is filled with paper, tacked on in some sort of order.

The door opens and the Raeken kid walks in. He too seems to balk at the state of the office but then continues on to a chair.

"Where's Liam?" Mason asked.

"His mom sent him to the the store," Theo said shrugging. "He said he'll come when he can."

"Alright," said Mason. "Okay let's uh, let's start."

When the Sheriff gives a nod, Mason continues. "So starting with the trees. Victim 1 is Carl Vincent. As far as we can tell he's led an average life. He works as an accountant and according to his wife, he regularly went for jogs along the trails. Nothing up with his finances, no grudges and not on our list of preternaturals in Beacon Hills."

"And no relation to any either," The Sheriff said. "Given how things fell out with the Dullahan, I made sure to check."

"Victim 2 was Blake Maraj. His family moved into Beacon Hills around ten years ago. He works in a music store in town. Like Carl he regularly went for jogs along the trails. He had a stiff working relationship with one of his colleagues but nothing to suggest murder and they didn't actively quarrel recently."

"Also no relation to anybody preternatural," the Sheriff said. "It basically looks like these two were killed as a matter of convenience. Not because of anything in their background. Autopsies for both a pretty similar. They died of crush injuries. The tree was literally crushing them into itself to absorb them. Many broken bones, lots of internal bleeding. I think we got to the bodies before they were digested though."

Theo looked up. "Do you think there might be others who were digested?"

"Possible," the Sheriff tells him. "But we've been scoured through the recent missing persons reports and interviewed the families. None of them used to run the trails regularly. Two didn't exercise and four of them opted to go to the gym instead. And I'm pretty sure two of those were a couple who had eloped no matter how much her parents insisted she wasn't seeing anyone."

"So on to our slash victim," Mason said. "Van Erling. Thirty years of age. Security guard. Not married. Not on our preternatural list or related to anyone that was."

The Sheriff helpfully pointed out the picture of Van Erling who was a stern-faced man with a strong jaw, blue eyes and auburn hair. "From interviews he hadn't gotten into any disagreements lately. He was cool with all his neighbours but not rude or hostile. The office building he worked at said he was a good worker. He knew everyone who worked there and when a pickpocket dashed through the lobby last year, he dealt with him pretty efficiently."

"So this guy knows how to defend himself," said Chris Argent. "So whoever did that to him…"

"Is pretty dangerous," the Sheriff said.

"According to the autopsy, a sharp instrument was definitely used to make these wounds," Mason said. "Not claws or anything."

"Seems like overkill," Theo said. "The amount of damage done. Granted he must have struggled but…" The chimera was frowning slightly the sheriff noticed.

"Yes," The Sheriff admitted. "It does seem like it. So this could have been personal. They are sending the findings to an expert to see if they can figure out what kind of sharp object, actually made the slashes."

"And the the ghost problem," Mason said.

"We don't know if it is a problem," Corey pointed out.

"What ghost?" said Parrish frowning.

"Melissa saw a guy go through the wall," Theo said. "Liam and I checked it out but we didn't get any scent or anything." He shrugged. "It was a long shot anyway. But neither were there any hidden doors in the hospital corridor, either which is the only other way I know how people appear to go through walls."

"Melissa what?" asked Argent startled. Mason nodded.

"But it doesn't seem to actively seem to be doing anything right?" asked the Sheriff.

"No," said Mason. "But you know, just in case."

The sheriff had to agree. "And finally our mysterious sword-wielding woman."

"We got the video off of the cruiser," Parrish said. He cued up the video on a laptop and they all leaned video was dark and the angle was off but they saw the figure suddenly appear in the road, stumbling like she'd been pushed off the curb and then watched as she launched forward again. The camera catches the barest edge of the disappearance of the woman as the sword swipes through her. Then the figure reacts as Farrell and Marks jump out and tell her to stop. It's actually impossible to tell on the video if the figure is male or female. But whoever it is is faster than a regular human. She manages to keep ahead of the squad car, even if it's just barely, until she turns the corner and then she's gone.

"Whoever she is," Argent says, "She definitely knows how to use that sword."

"Could it have been her who killed Erling?" Mason asked. Argent frowned.

"Possibly," he said, "With his training he could have held her off from making a killing blow. But why didn't she kill him when he was unconscious?"

"I guess we'll have to find out," said the Sheriff.

Just then the Sheriff's shoulder radio crackled.

"000-BH! A strange figure reported attacking someone with a spear!"

Everyone's head shoots up as the Sheriff demands the address and then they're all piling out the office and diving for their respective vehicles.

* * *

Liam has just arrived at home and delivered all the stuff his mom wanted and had headed upstairs to grab his car keys when his phone rang.

"Liam! Mason said, "We have a report of someone attacking people with a spear. A strange figure. We're all heading over right now!"

"Address!" he said. Mason gave it to him and he hurriedly committed it to memory. "I'll be there!" he said.

* * *

The Sheriff watches as Argent's, Theo's and Corey's respective vehicles all quickly out pace the squad car, making corners that he can't.

"I'm really regretting not taking those hunter driving lessons," he groans as Parrish holds onto the overhead handle and braces a hand on the dash.

"Frankly sir you're doing great," he says. The Sheriff snorts.

It's a terrible time to drive really. It's that moment when it's just after twilight but still not true night. The good thing is that there are less cars on the road and thus less people to crash into. The sirens wail hopefully clearing the path for the others.

* * *

Nobody bothers to park on the side of the road. Vehicles are brought to a screeching stop and then bodies tumble out. The Sheriff and Parrish arrive half a minute after and he tries to take in the scene even as he runs toward it.

Theo and Corey are engaging the creature up close while Argent shoots from some distance away. Mason is harassing the thing but staying out of range because whatever it is, is wicked fast.

It looks human but doesn't move human. It's very flexible, moving almost quadrupedally at times and extremely agile. There is a thick fur-pelt thrown over it's shoulders and, boots on its feet. There is some kind of greaves on it's forearms and underneath the pelt, is some sort of ragged tunic. There is a bone mask over its face and bones strapped to its thighs. It had a spear and a shield and it's wielding both with fearsome competence. The shield absorbs Argent's bullets with ease despite looking like it's made of wood and that's only when Argent can actually hit it. It dodges bullets and even Theo isn't fast enough to keep up with it. Both chimeras are spotting a dozen vicious cuts and they've only been in battle for less than a mintie. Of to the side a body lies bleeding profusely.

Parrish triggers his fire and enters the fray but the humanoid creature does not seem bothered by the fire. The sheriff personally finds this worrying but helps the others to move the fight away from the body by firing strategically. When the fight has moved away enough the Sheriff dives for the victim. Mason is there by his side in an instant and together they move the man out of the danger zone. Mason starts basic first aid while the sheriff calls for a ambulance.

A body flies past them and crashes to the ground hard. The Sheriff glances at them to determine it's Corey. Theo gets punted next and then it's just Argent and Parrish who are still fighting. And they're losing. Whatever this thing is, they're no match for it.

Sheriff Stilinski abandons the task of keeping pressure on the wounds to Mason alone while he aims his gun. He gets a couple of shots in before Parrish is in his line of sight. The hellhound is stabbed straight through the gut with the spear and then kicked backwards and then the thing is going for Argent.

Argent empties his shotgun into it but the shield takes a all the damage. He drops the shotgun and pulls out his handguns but even though he aims for the unprotected areas the creature dodges all of them. Just as it's about to hit Argent, someone looms behind the hunter,pulls him out of the way and manages to jab a cattle prod into the side of the creature as the spear digs deeply into them.

The creature hisses and jerks back, taking it's spear with it. Argent shoots at the barely exposed areas and snarls from Parrish and Theo tells the creature they ready to get back in the game. The thing surveys them all and then runs into the night dropping to all fours and scurrying away. It's too fast to follow and it's out of sight in mere seconds.

They all turn to see who it was that saved Argent and Chris says, "Isaac?" The curly haired beta grinned up at him,blood streaking out his mouth.

"I see Beacon Hills hasn't changed much."

* * *

The ambulance comes screaming up moments later and the EMT's hop out and heads over to the man who is lying on the curb where Mason and the Sheriff had dragged him. They watch as they set to work while Theo and Corey quickly dart back inside their vehicles before anyone notice how blood covered they are. Parrish too takes cover in Argent's car before someone can ask why he's walking around in his shorts. Isaac zips up his jacket to cover the blood stain and he and Argent drift over to Argent's car.

The paramedics eventually lift the man on a stretcher and carry him to the ambulance which sped off. The Sheriff heads over to the others with Mason.

"Anybody has any idea what that thing is?" he asked.

"No," Argent starts to say but is cut off by Theo.

"What I want to know," he says, "is where the hell is Liam?"

Everyone freezes.

* * *

The next thing Liam knows is Theo calling his name.

"Liam! Liam!"

His shoulder is shaken roughly and he blinks shakes his head and says, "Yeah?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Liam stares at him feeling unbelievably slow.

"What?" he says.

"You were supposed to meet us for the thing fighting someone?" he says, eyebrows raising. Liam looks at him and finally notices the gashes in his t-shirt and jeans. Mason is next to him in a moment and Liam is alarmed to see he is covered in blood.

"What the hell happened?" he said pushing himself to stand from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"You tell us," said Theo.

"I called you," Mason said, "You picked up. You said you'd be there. Do you remember?"

"Yeah," Liam says, head still feeling strange. "I remember. I was here to grab my keys and…." he trailed off. "I, I guess I felt tired? I don't know. I don't really remember. I think I just sat down for a minute and, and….I don't remember anything after that." He blinks. "What the hell happened to me?"

"Dude," said Mason watching him with worried eyes. "I don't know."

* * *

 _ **Dun Dun Dun!**_


	5. Chapter 5

**I know it's been long. I hope it's okay.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

To say that Liam was alarmed would be an understatement. To say that everyone else was alarmed would be the understatement of understatements. He's in the Sheriff's station now, where they can all talk with some amount of privacy, while the sheriff and Parrish can still do their jobs. He's just finished recounting his side of the story after they told him theirs and by the looks on everyone's faces this is VERY BAD NEWS. Liam doesn't disagree.

To make matters more interesting, Isaac leans in a corner of the room eyeing Liam. The curly haired beta hasn't said much, but the way his eyes had flicked up and down Liam had seemed challenging. It didn't help that Liam could feel the silent judging for going out of it when he was needed in a fight, nevermind that it wasn't Liam's fault.

In the intervening silence,when everyone is trying to wrap their heads around facts or quickly thinking up new lines of investigation, Isaac speaks up.

"So you're the kid that McCall bit to keep from falling of a roof."

It's meant to make Liam feel small, make him lose his temper but Liam has heard stories of Isaac from the others and determined to make this work for everyone, had prepared himself for this kind of thing.

"Yep. And you're the beta who left Derek to follow the kind of alpha who bites people to keep them from falling of roofs."

There's a moment silence and then Isaac blinks, his mouth twitches into a half grin and he says, "Yeah I guess we're both idiots."

The tension broken, Liam says, "Hi I'm Liam."

"Isaac," Isaac replies.

"This is Mason," Liam said introducing Mason because he isn't sure anybody actually did any introductions. "He's like Stiles but better."

Mason chokes and Isaac actually laughs. "Good," he says. "Because I don't think anyone here needs another Stiles."

There is general round of nodding because they all love Stiles dearly but there's really only room for one of him.

"This is Corey,"

"Invisible guy," Isaac says and Corey nods.

"And Theo," he says.

Isaac's eyes turn cool. "Scott's murderer."

Theo's chin lifts, a cool sarcastic smirk spreading across his face. "Yep."

"That Scott has forgiven," Liam interjects hurriedly.

Neither Isaac or Theo appears to hear him.

"Let's get this straight," Isaac says, "You do anything like that again and I will shred you. Scott, may let you live this time but don't think his pack, will ever let you hurt him and any one of us again."

"Noted," Theo said coolly but his body is humming with tension. It's not anger, it's… pain at the accusation within the threat." Isaac studies Theo for a second and then snorts lightly but his eyes are a little softer. He's seen something in Theo's face that has convinced him not to kill Theo right there and then. Isaac turns to evidence board, a clear sign that the conversation is over and the tension in the room drops noticeably.

"So…" said Mason loudly, "We need to figure out what's going on."

"Well we have more than one figure attacking people with sharp objects," said the Sheriff looking annoyed.

"Do you think that this person with the spear might have been the one who killed Van Erling?" Liam asked.

"Seems like it," says Parish. "At least from eyeballing it, the slashes and stabs look like they'll be more consistent with damage down by a spear than a sword."

"I concur," said Argent.

"Do you know anything that might be what this thing was?" the Sheriff asks Argent.

Argent shakes his head. "I've never seen anything like that. "Isaac?"

Isaac shook his head. "Haven't seen or heard of anything like that."

"We'll asks Deaton," said Liam. "I should go over to him anyway and find out if he can tell me what happened."

"Do that," said the Sheriff. "We'll follow the case here."

Liam and the others got into their respective vehicles. At the last minute Isaac hopped into Theo's truck with Liam and Theo. Theo gave a glance at the back mirror and Isaac watched him back sardonically and then Theo put the truck into gear and they all headed of to the animal clinic.

* * *

Mason had called Deaton on the way to the veterinarian was waiting for them. He took liam to the examination room and thoroughly examined him like a normal doctor first and then in some more esoteric ways. Finally he pulled out some syringes and asked Liam for a blood sample.

"Just to rule out more mundane means," he said.

Liam nodded and held out his arm. Deaton took the sample, quickly and easily and then stripped off his gloved.

"I can't find anything physically wrong with you," he said. "But I am finding traces of magic around you."

"What?!" said Liam while the others stiffened about him.

"Someone used magic on him?" Mason asked.

"I think so," said Deaton. "But it is very strange. The only thing I can link it to is the man-eating trees we enouctered earlier. The magic is the same type that was one the bark."

"Wait, so the same person did this?" Theo said.

"Man eating trees?" asked Isaac. Mason hurriedly caught him up to speed and Isaac paused. "Well that's not good."

"The good thing is that this magic is specific and I might be able to narrow down what type of magic it is," deaton said. "This might help us to know who or what we're up against."

"Ok," siad Liam, "Good."

"Can you tell us something about our spear wielding figure, though?"

"Hmm," said Deaton. "That may take more time. Off hand I can say I've never seen anything like it or heard about it."

"It was fast," said Corey "and Parrish's fire didn't bother it. How many creatures are immune to hellfire?"

"Not a lot," siad Deaton.

"Not immune though," Theo said thoughtfully. "I think the fire hurt it a bit. It just...didn't care."

"The cattle prod worked." said Isaac, "but I think it only left because it was getting inconvenient."

"It's an interesting conundrum," said Deaton. "I'll try to dig something up and call my sister to see if she knows anything more than I do."

"Thanks," Liam tells him.

"What about our swordswoman?" Theo asks.

"I haven't dug up anything yet," Deaton said sounding troubled. "It must be one of the mythologies I haven't search yet. I started of with those we enoutered before."

"So this might be something new," Liam says, feeling depressed.

"Are we gonna make our way through the entre mythology of the world?" Isaac asked.

"Possibly," said Corey.

* * *

Argent and Farrel were driving down the road where the strange creature had disappeared down earlier.

"Is it a good idea to follow this thing?" The deputy asked nervously. "What happens if we find it?"

"We shoot it," Argent replied flatly.

Deputy Farrel blinked and then nodded.

Argent scored the sides of the road and then pulled up.

What?" asked the deputy.

"That," Argent pointed. There was some broken branches in the brush lining the road. He hopped out the car bringing his shot gun with him. The deputy followed him gun out.

Argent slowly checked the branches and confirmed his suspicions. Something large and fast had come this way. He glanced at the deputy and put a finger to his lips. Whatever this thing was, Argent didn't want to announce their presence to it, prematurely. The deputy nodded and together they set of into the forest.

* * *

Melissa was on call when the victim from the attack rolled in. She ran out to help the paramedics bring the victim inside. Dr. Geyer apparead a moment later along with his team and they all swarmed the man, doing their best to keep him alive until he reached surgery. And surgery he definitely needed. He's been stabbed repeatedly with the spear and it looks bad. She helps them to stabilize him and then he's rushed off into emergency surgery. It's gonna be a long fight if they want to save him.

* * *

They follow the creatures trail far into the forest but it ends abruptly. Argent sweeps the flashlight around the area and finally catches sight of strippped of bark, high up a tree. He looks for another mark but there's none. Apparently once the creature had gotten of the ground it had moved slower and much more careful. They weren't going to be able to track it, not like this.

"It's gone," he said, frowning.

"Where?" asked the deputy. "It must hold up somewhere right?"

"That's the problem with Beacon Hills," replied Argent. "There are too many places to hide."

* * *

Melissa sighs. It's been five hours since the stab victim had come in. He was in stable condition but highly highly critical. If he survived the next twenty four hours was up to him now. There was nothing more they could do. She stipped of her scubs and heads over to wash her hands. She washes her hands and then her face, exhausted as she always is after assisting in a long surgery.

She steps out if the washroom and someone almost knocks into her.

"Oh!" she says involuntarily jerking back.

"Sorry," the person says but they don't stop moving. Melissa looks after them fornwing when she notices the hoodie they're wearing. Hoodies aren't uncommon in the hospital, what with the AC usually being so cold but not many people tend to actually have the hoods up. She shrugs and heads back to the breakroom to get her purse.

She collects her purse and fished out her phone.

MM to EVERYONE in BH: Victim alive but in critical condition. Unsure whether or not he'll survive the next 24hrs.

Liam: Thanks. Deaton said I've been hit with some kind of magic.

MM: ARe you okay?"

Liam: For now.

CA: Followed trail of spear wielder but it petered out in the preserve. Deputy and I returning.

SS: Thanks for the update. Parrish and I pulling information on newest victim. Will send information to everyone.

MM: Send information of previous slash victim please. I'll see if I can dig up any connection in their files.

SS: Will do.

Melissa drinks some water while she awaits the information. She thirsty and hungry and tired but right now, there's no better time to dig around the records and not be caught. He phone dings a moment later and Melissa is greeted with information on Van Erling. She studies the information and then the picture of the man. She frowns when she sees it, becuase Van Erling looks vaguely familiar. She shakes her head and tries to remember where she might have seen him but nothing comes to mind. He must just look similar to someone she knows then.

She drinks from her bottle of water again and sets of to the records room.

* * *

She is searching thought he records on van Erling when movement catches her eye. She looks up sharply, hoping she hadn't been caught but there was nothing there. She frowned but when back to her snooping. The next time she sees movement though she pushes back the records and wishes she has her stun baton.

"Hello?" she called. "Who's there?" Another flicker of movement and then there is her ghost. He looks decidedly less friendly this time and far more real. And he's wearing the face of Van Erling.

Melissa backs away from the ghost. The ghost starts after her but stops suddenly. Then he turns and vanishes.

Melissa blinks and then rushes out the records room. She looks up and down the hallway but sees no sign of the ghost of Van Erling. Movement further down the hall catches her eye and she spots a glimpse of the hooded figure who had almost knocked into her earlier, turn a corner.

Melissa narrowed her eyes and then on impulse hurried after the figure.

Whoever they were though had a big head start and when Melissa turned the corner she couldn't see any sign of either odd figure.

She sighed and then dialed the sheriff. She recited the events that just happened and he said he'd send Parrish over. She thanked him and hung up.

Just then the code red began beeping through the hospital. She hurriedly dashed of to find out the comotion only to find that it surrounded the room of the stab patient.

She pushed her way into the room and then gasped. The man lay in the bed still hooked up to the life saving equipment but there was a gaping slice across his throat.

* * *

 _ **R &R please!**_


	6. Chapter 6

**Ugh, this chapter was hard to write. I've been so out of this fandom. Still I hope you like. And my chapter plans are officially screwed.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

"What happened?" asked Liam as he entered the hospital.

"I don't know," said Melissa. "Someone snuck in and sliced his throat open."

"Do we know who it is?" Theo asked. "Do the cameras have any footage of the person?"

"You'd have to ask the sheriff," Melissa said. "He's checking through the footage now. But that's not the only problem we have."

"What other problem do we have?" Liam asked.

"I saw our ghost again," said Melissa, "Only this time I recognized him."

"What?" said Theo. "Who was it."

"Van Erling," said Melissa. "Our last stab victim. And he wasn't pleasant this time. I think he would have hurt me."

"So, why didn't he?" asked Liam.

"And why did he turn into a vengeful ghost?" asked Theo.

"To answer your second question, I don't know. But when I came out of the room after he left, I saw the hooded figure."

"So you think he went after that person?" Theo said frowning.

"Or maybe he was running from them," interjected Liam. "The person who killed our last stab victim...it's probably the swordswoman right?"

"So he ran away from a woman who could what? Swish her sword around his ghostly form a few times?" asked Theo raising an eyebrow.

"Well she's not human," Liam said, "Who knows what he could do? Besides maybe he did go after her to try and kill her."

"Which begs the reason why though," said Melissa, "But that's all speculation. The swordswoman killed our last stab victim right. I mean that most likely was her. And if it was, why?"

"You're right," said Liam, "We don't know anything about her."

"Do we know anything about swordswomen in mythology?" asked Theo.

"No," said Melissa. "Outside of the fae."

"Well maybe she is a fae" said Liam. Just then his phone buzzed. He answered it.

"Well whoever it was that killed that man was a woman," the Sheriff said. "More than that we can't tell, but Farrell says he thinks it was the same person."

"Thanks," siad Liam. He relayed the news to the others and then he and Theo went questing down the corridor for scents.

After a few moments Theo frowned and then said, "I think I get her scent here," he said. "But it's different, a little from the last time."

"How so?" asked Liam as he moved over to where Theo was standing.

"There's something stranger about it," Theo said, "It's more...not!human than it was before."

Liam sank down to his haunches and breathed in deeply. The metallic scent is stronger but there's something richer beneath it, something like air and freshly turned earth, and light and sheer otherness. He blinks.

"That is different," he said.

"I know right," said Theo. He sounds disturbed.

"Theo?" Liam asks frowning.

"I just..." He shook his head. "It's nothing."

"Theo," said Liam sharply.

Theo glanced at him and then said, "That scent...it's kind of like...the limbo? But not….it's just...similar in a way."

"Think she's a skin walker?" Liam said frowning.

"No," Theo shook his head emphatically. "I don't know what she is. But," he added staring down the corridor, "we should probably find out quickly."

* * *

Mason is deep in the files of the last two stab victims when his phone rings. He glances at the ID and then picks it up. "Hey Dr. Deaton."

"Goodnight Mason," said the venternarian placidly. "Would you mind coming down to the animal clinic? I think I have something to show you."

Mason pulls up to the animal clinic at the same time a rental car does. He freezes until Isaac steps out of the car. Mason gets out and nods to him and then together they walk in.

"Hey doc," said Isaac when they walk in.

Deaton's face lights up. "Isaac," he says both surprised and pleased. "What brings you back here?"

Isaac shrugs. "Felt like I was missing some death and danger in my life."

Deaton smiles a little. "Didn't have enough of that in France?"

"I got tired of the food," Isaac deadpans and the veterinarian actually smiles widely.

"It's good to see you," he tells Isaac who smiles back a little.

"Good to see you too," the beta admits.

"So um," said Mason, hating to break up the little moment. "What do have to show us?"

"Ahh yes," said deaton. He waved them to the back of the clinic and pushed a book over to them. "I think I found out what the type of magic is," he said. "It's seidr."

"It's what?" said Isaac frowning.

"The norse?" Mason blurted out.

"The what?" Isaac repeated to him now.

"Norse magic. Like vikings and Odin and Thor."

"Thor from the comics?" said Isaac.

Mason hits his forehead. "No like the actual norse god of thunder."

"Thor from the comics is the actual god of thunder," Isaac says.

Mason chooses to ignore him. "The norse people called magic, seidr in their myths. I didn't know it was a different type," he adds to Deaton.

"It is," said Deaton. "But I haven't run across anyone practicing seidr for a long time and neither have any of my colleagues."

"How long is long?" asked Isaac.

"I was five," said Deaton, "And he was already dying."

There is a pause.

"How many people can practice it though?" asked Mason.

"Only the descendants of the norse," said Deaton. "It's not quite hereditary but you have to be a descendant I think, to be able to use their methods."

"So we have a norse descendant running around making man eating trees?" said mason.

"It appears so," said Deaton.

* * *

Corey is on his way to the hospital when a young man runs across the road without seeming to care if anyone is driving. He breaks hard, thanking Argent for all the driving lessons and is about to ask the young man if he's alright but the guy just keep going. Corey blinks and then suddenly another figure is darting across the road after the guy. Corey frowns clearly sensing that something was wrong and calls out, "Hey!"

He pressed the ex and drive after the two running figures. Before he can catch up to the two figures though, the second one reaches the first guy and tackles him.

"Hey!" Corey yells again. He slams on the breaks once more and hops out of the car but before he can reach them, the second man has literally ripped open the throat of the first guy. Corey gapes and reaches for his ring daggers as he runs.

He swipes hard at the second guy but the blade goes straight through the man, like he's not even there.

The man turns and Corey jerks back. It's Van Erling, their first stab victim.

"What?!" he says and then dashes back again as Van Erling moves towards him. He slashes at the man but the dager goes through just like before. He has never missed his mountain ash arrows as much as he does now. Van Erling swipes at him and his hand passes through Corey's flesh but then solidifies halfway through and he rips all the way back out.

Corey screams and jerks back. Erling swipes at him again but Corey jumps back. Hsi left arm is useless now and pouring blood but he keeps his grip on his other dagger.

He slashes at the ghost but the man just grins, his expression so at odds with the stern, silent man he was said to be. The ghost advances on him once more but then stops, his expression changing.

Then he's gone. Literally just gone. Corey blinks and then he's up and over to the guys lying on the side of the road. He presses his one functioning hand against the gaping hole but he knows it's too late, the guy is dead.

A flicker of motion has his head coming back up but whatever it is is already gone. Corey collapses next to the corpse on the sidewalk and reaches for his phone.

* * *

Liam thinks that two deaths a night is really pushing it. When he gets the call from Corey he has to squeeze his hands shut, to try keep the blood from his claws digging into them from dripping onto the floor.

He turns to Theo and the Sheriff and said, "Van Erling's ghost just killed someone and ripped open Corey's arm."

"Wait what!" said the Sheriff.

"How?" asked Theo.

"Where?" asked the Sheriff already moving down the corridor.

Liam gave the address and dived after them.

* * *

They find Corey still sitting on the side of the road next to the corpse looking dejected. Liam takes one look at him and his anger is abruptly shoved aside. The stupid IED can wait. He hauls Corey up to his feet and looks at his arm.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Corey says. He swallows hard and nods.

"Hey," it's the Sheriff. He puts a hand on Corey's shoulder. "I know you kids. I know you did everything you could okay?"

Corey nods but Liam can see he's fighting hard to begin to believe that. Liam squeezes his shoulder and when Corey gives him a grateful look he nods slightly at him.

"So what happened?" the Sheriff asked Corey when he senses that the young chimera is more stable.

Corey gives them the run down and the sheriff rubs his forehead.

"Okay, first off, I'm sending all of you home. Corey get to Deaton and make sure that arm is healing like it should. Theo wait, stay here and tell me if you can get anything else here."

Liam protests but the sheriff shakes his head.

"You two get out of here. You both have school in the morning and Coey's still healing. Talk to Deaton too. Find out what you can."

Liam hesitates but Theo gives him a look and a little nod. He'll take care of it.

"Fine," Liam says. He guides Coey to the car and heads of to the animal clinic.

* * *

The Sheriff watches as Raeken searches the area thoroughly. At first it seems like there's nothing to find but then Teho stops abruptly.

"What is it?" Sheriff Stilinski asks.

"The swordswoman," said Theo. "She passed here."

"What?" said the Sheriff. "Did she go from the hospital to here?"

"Maybe," said Theo. "But why?"

"Do you think she's controlling the ghost?" the Sheriff asked.

"If you can kill someone with a sword why would you use the ghost to do it?" Theo asked.

"Maybe using the ghost makes it different. Maybe she gets something out of it that way," said the Sheriff.

Theo frowns."Maybe," he says slowly.

"You know anything that can do that?" The sheriff asked.

The chimera shook his head. "No but, I've heard of things similar. La bete du gevaudan for example. Every time it changed, it got started, got closer to being Sebastian. Maybe every time the ghost kills, it changes."

"Becomes stronger?" asked the sheriff.

"Maybe," said Theo, slowly.

"But if so, why didn't the ghost kill Melissa?" Sheriff Stilinski asked.

"Maybe she's picking her victims," said Theo. "Maybe there's something special about them."

"And melissa didn't fall within the category," Sheriff Stilinski said.

"Yeah we should probably ask Deaton," Theo said.

* * *

TR to Liam:Found sent of swordswoman at the scene. SS and I think she might be controlling them. Ask Deaton if ghost doing the killing can change the ghost to make it more powerful.

Liam to TR: Will do. And seriously?

TR to Liam: Yes.

* * *

When they show up at Deaton's Corey's arm is completely healed. They enter just as Mason and Isaac appear to be leaving. There is a general outcry but Corey assure everyone he's okay and then allows Deaton to check him over.

"He's fine, as far as I can tell," Deaton says.

"Yeah it feels fine," Corey said. "It just felt cold when he shoved his hand in my arm."

"Yes I've been told ghosts do feel cold," Deaton says like this is a perfectly ordinary thing to know.

"So is this linked to the seidr person?" Isaac asked.

"The what person?" Liam asked.

"Deaton says that the type of magic used is seidr," Mason explains. "That's the type of magic that the norse mythology uses.

"Wait so vikings are trying to kill us?" Liam says blanky.

"Um, maybe?" says Mason.

"Would explain the sword," said Isaac.

"Right. Theo said he caught the scent of the swordswoman at the scene where the ghost killed the other guy."

"What!" said Corey. Then he frowned. "I think I saw something move past me after but it so fast Just an impression of movement."

"Maybe that was her," Liam said. "Theo and the sheriff thought that she might be controlling the ghosts and asked if having the ghost kill the people changes the ghost and makes it stronger."

"I should have stayed in France," Isaac said to nobody in particular.

"Hmm," said Deaton. "That is an interesting thought. I'll do some research and I'll focus on the norse I'll find and answer somewhere."

"Thanks doc," Liam says suddenly feeling tired.

* * *

CA: Lost the trail of the Swordswoman from the hospital

MM: New victim is identified as Brant Carr. Last stab victim's name is Eric Fell.

TR: Lost trail of swordswoman from the last crime scene.

MH: Magic type is identified as seidr, magic used in norse mythology. TR and SS have postulated that swordswoman is controlling ghosts and using them to kill which may in turn make them stronger.

CB: I am alright. No side effects from being attacked by a ghost.

MM: Glad to hear it CB. Is there anyone in norse mythology who can do that?

CA: Not to my knowledge but myths don't always cover the true extent of the truth. So we should search for people who can influence ghosts in any way.

IL: A group chat? Really? But CA is right. Besides does viking mean anything mythological wise? Like can a viking be a mythological creature? And if so, can the swordswoman be one?

CA: I've never heard of that. But perhaps the norse heritage is part of why she carries a sword, similar to Kira carrying a katana.

AD: I'll be sure to look into it.

But the time the conversation is over, Liam has arrived home. He waves to Corey who has dropped him off and slithers into bed.

* * *

 _ **Review please! They help me get boosted to write more!**_

 _ **And can anyone hazard a guess as to what our mysterious swordswoman is?**_


	7. Chapter 7

**I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

Waking up the next morning is not easy. He feels like he's dead and disoriented to boot. He stumbles around the room in a haze and is in fact so pathetic Theo takes pity on him brings up some coffee before he leaves for work. Liam doesn't know if to feel happy or insulted. He drinks the coffee anyway.

Liam to EVERYONE in BH: I'm alive. Anything new?

MM: It was in doubt? And no, not really, unless you count the ME's confusion about how Brant Carr's throat is ripped open without an entry wound. I didn't think telling him it was ghost was going to go over well.

Liam: I highly doubt that.

SS: Brant Carr: newly graduated and came back to work in his with his mother, works at a computer repair store in the mall. Was going home when he was attacked. No quarrels with anyone, no outstanding bills, no affiliations with any gangs, criminals etc. Rarely drinks, doesn't smoke, despises drugs. Had a fair presence on the online gaming community but didn't seem to have any enemies there.

MH: I am coming over to the station. Liam cover for me.

MM: MH go to school!

SS: MH go to school!

MH: people are dying!

Liam: I'll send you the notes.

MM:!

That done he ran out the house yelling goodbye to his mom and headed off to school before he was late. Corey met him in the parking lot, having just pulled up as well.

"Hey," said Liam.

"Hey," Corey replied.

"Are you okay?" Liam asked.

"I'm fine," said Corey. "My arm healed up just fine."

Laim paused. "That wasn't what I was asking," he said softly.

Corey looked at him and then nodded a little more stiffly. "I'm okay. Not great but not bad either."

"It wasn't your fault," Liam told him.

"I know," said Corey. "Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

Liam could very well sympathise. "Let's just catch whoever is doing this."

"Yeah," Corey nods jerkily.

* * *

They head up into school and begin threading their way through to the crowds of students.

"Liam! Hey Liam!" a voice calls.

Liam turns to see Hillary making her way over to them. Out of the corner of his eyes he sees Corey start to grin and hisses, "Shut up!" at him.

"Uh, hey!" he manages to stutter out.

Hillary is breathtaking this morning, Her long red curls are tumbling down her back, and she has on a complimenting shade of lipstick that makes it difficult for him to tear his eyes away from her lips. She is positively glowing with happiness and the grin she turns on him is enough to make his knees want to melt a little.

"Hi!" she said tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you mind if I walk with you guys to class?"

"Uh,.." said Liam still staring.

"Sure," said Corey.

"Where's Mason?" she asked.

"Uh," Corey shoots Liam a slightly panicked look.

"He's not feeling too well this morning," Liam improvises smoothly. "He said he wasn't sure if he'll make it in late or not at all."

"Aww," said Hillary frowning. "I hope he feels okay."

"Yeah, me too," Liam says.

They sort of stand there in awkward silence before Corey saves the day by saying, "We better not be late. Mrs Finch will make us go up on the board."

Liam grimaced and they all started moving down the corridor toward class.

Mason doesn't appear for second period and Liam surmises that the Sheriff has probably given up on prying him out of the office.

* * *

"Go to school!" the Sheriff says tirely. He'd thought when he'd send his only kid to college that he'd be free of this but apparently Stiles had ordered a new model to bring his father to an early apoplexy.

"People are dying,"Mason said, "Ghosts are killing people. Which means dead people are killing people. Which is beyond weird even for my life. I have to figure this out.

"You can figure it out after you come from school." the Sheriff said. "Don't make me get a deputy to drag you to a patrol car and carry you back to school."

"I'm making headway," Mason said. "I know I am."

"You've been staring at the same files for half an hour doing nothing," the Sheriff rejoined.

"I was thinking!" Mason said indignantly. "There's a connection that's on the edge of my mind and I have to find it. Just...let me stay here for a bit. If I lose this train of thought-thingy, I may not find it again."

The Sherriff sighed, closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead tiredly.

"If you don't figure out your trail of thought in the next half an hour, we're going to assume that the train has derailed and you are going back to school. I will not have another borderline graduating student."

"Yes!" hissed Mason.

The sheriff sighed. He was going to regret this.

* * *

Parrish was just about to finish off a report when his world blurred. He gasped and leaned over his desk and heat rippled out form his body. He gasped again and fought down the flames and then suddenly they were gone, leaving him with a coolness that extended far beyond him. He sat up blinking and searched inside himself. He tried to trigger his fire and felt it move under his skin so nothing had gone wrong there. So what...He blinked and sat back.

"Oh no," he said.

* * *

Mason had gone out for a drink of water when Parrish appeared in the doorway. The Sheriff glanced up at him and instantly became alert at the look on his face.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I can't sense the Nematon," Parrish said.

* * *

Theo doesn't hate the farm. Well he had hated it at first but there were horses and who knew goats could be so entertaining? Still, the work was exhausting even for a chimera and the scents of a farm would never be pleasant to an enhanced nose.

He was on his lunch break and had just taken his first bite of his sandwich when a scream came from the woods on the edge of the farm.

Theo was up on his feet and heading towards the source of the disturbance before he'd even registered what he was doing. By that time he was joined by other farm workers who were also running towards the sound of the voice.

If it was what Theo suspected it was, he should probably get there first. He put on a little extra burst of speed and made it to the front of the pack and then to edge of the woods just in time for the farmer's wife to run smack into him.

He caught and steadied her.

"Hey, hey," he said soothingly. "What is it?"

She was hyperventilating and couldn't speak but she pointed and as soon as the next person came. he passed her onto them and then headed of into the woods.

The farmer's wife's footsteps weren't hard to trace, nor was her scent. He came up to a basket, filled with berries that were in season and then a few feet further he found what he suspected.

There, fused into a tree was a person. He couldn't actually tell if it was a man or woman, since so much of them was into the tree already. All there was was a lone arm, reaching out into the air for help that wouldn't come.

* * *

Theo's text came before the report to the station.

Theo to EVERYONE in BH: Another man-eating tree. This time in the woods behind the farm I work at. Looks like it's been there before the others.

SS: JP and I are on our way.

LD: So are we.

SS: No you aren't. Stay in school. We can handle this. Mason will also be joining you in school

CA: I will meet you.

MM: Yes stay in school. And another one?

IL: Give me the coordinates. I want to see this.

* * *

"No!" Mason said.

"I gave you half and hour and it's up," said the Sheriff.

"That was before the man-eating tree!" Mason protested.

"And?" The sheriff handed Mason's keys to Parrish. Mason frantically patted his pockets and then looked up in alarm.

"How did you get those?!"

"Let's make a deal. Either Parrish keeps those keys and you get a drop back with deputy Farrell or we give them back and you go straight to school and not follow us to the farm. Or reach the farm at all today," he amended thinking about all the ways Stiles would try to get out of any restriction. Mason's shoulders slumped and he held out his hand for his keys. Parrish tossed them to him.

"And if I find out that you didn't go to school I'm going to put you in lockup for the requisite hours that you are supposed to attend classes and you will spend that time catching up on your schoolwork."

Mason gaped and then nodded. "I'm heading straight back to school."

"Good."

Mason morosely pocketed his keys and began heading out to his car when he stopped and then turned back inside. He reached for a set of key cards that Liam had given him, and then carefully made his way to the evidence lockup.

* * *

Sheriff Stilinski arrived to find Theo Raeken prowling the area around the tree.

"No scents," he said. "Just the victim's and the farmer's wife when she came out here this morning. The victim has been here for awhile, judging by the scent. They're rotting on the inside. I can smell it because the tree didn't close completely around the body."

"Think this is our first victim?" asked Parrish.

"Maybe," said the Sheriff. "At least one of the first ones. Do you think you can get them out of that tree?"

"Probably," said Parrish. "I don't think this tree has been active for a while."

He grimaced and stripped and then triggered his fire. It took some time for him to get the corpse out and even so he wasn't able to get the entire thing out. Some bones were so fused into the wood of the tree that it was impossible to remove them.

Theo helps Parrish to get he body out and then stared dispassionately down at the corpse. Watching his face, the sheriff wondered what it was that Scott and Liam had seen inside him for them to trust him so.

"That's...weird."

Sheriff Stilinski turned to see Isaac, wrapped in his customary scarf ana Chris Argent behind them.

"This one is older," Argent said. "The bone has actually fused into the wood. None of the other corpses had had time to get to that stage. Plus the blood has partially washed off from the last rain we had."

Isaac rounded the tree and went scouting for tracks but stopped soon, knowing it was a lost endeavour.

"We still haven't figured out what this is for," said Parrish. "Why are is someone doing this?"

"Do you think it has something to do with the Nematon?" the Sheriff asked.

"What happened to the Nematon?" Theo and Isaac said in concert and then glanced at each other uneasily.

"I can usually sense it," said Parrish. "But from since 15-20 minutes ago, I can't."

"That's not ominous at all," Theo said.

"Wait you can feel it?" asked Isaac.

"I have a sort of connection to it," Parrish replied. "But it's gone and I have a feeling that if I tried to find it, I won't be able to."

Chris Argent and Isaac glanced at each and a wealth of conversation passed unsaid between them.

"What?" Theo demanded.

"I have a connection to it to," said Isaac, "Well I had, sort of. Maybe I can find it."

Before anyone else could reply though the sheriff radio crackled.

"Sherriff, we have a fire at the station!"

Everyone instantly looked to Parrish who said, "How could it be me?"

"On my way!" the Sheriff said. "Parrish stay and cordent is off."

"Sheriff!"

"I'll go with him." said Argent and Isaac and Theo nodded.

With that they all took off running for their vehicles.

* * *

 _ **Review please!**_


	8. Chapter 8

**So I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

They arrive to find firemen coming out of the police station while some officers stand outside. The fire is out, the Sheriff learns from the fireman, but most of their evidence room is gone. The Sheriff closes his eyes and rubs at his forehead. He thanks the fireman and then walks to where his men have gathered while they wait for the building to air out.

"What happened?!" he asked.

"Sheriff." It was Farrell. He grimaced and then gestured to where Mason stood, handcuffed to one of the police jeeps.

"What is going on?!" he said.

"I'm sorry," said Mason. "I didn't mean to."

"Mason?" asked Theo, almost disbelievingly.

"Ahh shit," said Isaac. "This is like Stiles all over again isn't it?"

"Hopefully not," said Theo as they all converged around Mason who looked like he was almost on the verge of tears.

"Mason," said the Sheriff trying to be calm. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened."

"That's just it," said Mason. "I don't know. I was heading to my car, to go to school like you said."

"But what happened?"

"After that?" said Mason, "I don't know. The next thing I'm aware off is standing in front of the blaze while deputy Farrell is trying to pull me away."

"Like Liam," said Theo.

"Exactly like Liam," said Chris Argent. "We should get him to Deaton."

"How?" asked the Sheriff. "He just set ablaze the entire evidence locker. I can't let him go."

"Let Deaton come to him then," said Isaac.

"That's better," said Mason. "That way, if someone does try to do something to me again, I won't be able to hurt anyone or anything."

"How did you get into evidence lockup?" the Sheriff asked.

"The extra key cards Stiles made," said Mason. "Liam gave them to me to hold."

The Sheriff feels a strong urge to resists manfully.

"Alright, Theo go and get Liam and Corey here. I want to make sure that neither of them are also being influenced by whoever is using the seidr or whatever it is."

"Isaac, plase escort Dr. Deaton here. That man has an unfortunate history of being kidnapped just when we need him."

"I'll go with him," said Argent and the Sheriff nodded.

"Parrish," the Sheriff said, "I want you to go in there and see if you can figure out of the fire was set by normal means or…."

"Something else," Parrish finished. He nodded sharply. "I'll get on that sir."

* * *

"Hey you okay?" Liam asked.

"Hmm?" said Hillary and then shook her head. "Yeah. I'm fine," she smiled. "Just spaced out for a second.

"Oh," said Liam. "Well, uh, what were you thinking about?"

Hillary paused and then laughed. "I've forgotten. But say, are you having practice this evening?"

"Lacrosse? Um yeah. We usually have practice most days."

"Nice," she said. "Do you mind if I come to watch?"

"Uh, no," Liam stuttered. Corey, the traitor, laughs behind him.

"Lots of people watch," Corey says. "I think there's a newly begun betting pool on how many games we might win this season so people come to practices so they can place the best bets."

Hillary's eyes widened and she laughed. "What?!"

"Wait what?" Liam echoed.

"Yup," said Corey. "Our freshmen are industrious."

"Our freshmen are betting on us?" Liam asked incredulously.

"What odds?" Hillary asked, laughter in her voice. Liam shot her a betrayed look which only made her snicker more.

"Five to one, Devenford prep beats us," said Corey.

Just like that Liam's mood plummets. Corey catches sight of his face and gives a little wince. Liam fights to fix his face because he does not want to talk about this now and Hillary is sure to ask.

"And we have a ten to one running that Mary Tree's private will beat us in at least one game in the season," Corey hurriedly adds.

"What!" said Hillary. "I don't think they will . You guys were amazing against them."

Liam chants ''the sun the moon and the truth' in his head, while Corey distracts her, until the images of Bret and Lori's dead, broken bodies stop flashing in his mind.

When he finally comes back into the conversation it appears that Corey has somehow worked it to the next lab they have to perform in biology. Liam thinks he owes him a waffle or something.

He's about to enter the conversation when his phone vibrates in his pocket. Corey's does the same and they both pull out their phones frowning.

TR to Liam, CB: Coming to pick you up. Mason got magicked. Sheriff wants you both to be checked as well.

Liam and Corey both stare at each other and then hurriedly packed up their stuff while Hilaary watches them in confusion.

"Um, guys?" she said.

"Sorry,' aid Liam. "Uh Mason's really... uh...ill. We have to um, go and see him." Together they dash out the doors knowing that Mrs. Martin will cover for them.

Liam rushes out the door just as Theo pulls up and he and Corey piles into the truck.

"What happened to him!" Liam demands.

"He's fine," said Theo, "He just burned out the evidence locker in the sheriff's station without remembering it."

"What?" said Liam.

"Like you, when you just spaced out on us for the fight,"" said Corey.

"That's what Argent said," Theo told them, nodding. "Deaton is on his way with Isaac to the station. I guess he'll check all of us out."

"Okay," said Liam. Then, "You're sure he's alright? What about the deputies?"

"The deputies are fine. The evidence locker is toast."

"That's a terrible pun," Corey says. "Aside from that, I think the question is: Why?"

"Why what?" asked Liam.

"Why set the evidence locker on fire?" asked Corey. "What do they have to hide there? Or was it a distraction?"

It's a good question and one that hadn't occurred to Liam yet.

"I think," said Theo slowly. "We had better figure that out, and fast."

* * *

The ghost would have given Isaac a really nasty headwound if Deaton hadn't managed to throw a stick of mountain ash like a spear, at it. The ghost screamed and dissolved and Isaac blinked.

"You know every time I think it can't get weirder it does," Isaac says conversationally.

"Even I have to admit I am surprised on occasion," Deaton says breathing a little hard. He has a cut on his cheek but it's superficial. "Shall we go?"

"Sure," said Isaac.

Argent lowers his gun slightly and then turns to sweep the outside.

Deaton grabbed his bag and then they walked out of the clin with Isaac and Argent looking around the entire time just in case another ghost appears. It doesn't and they make it back to the sheriff's station just after Theo pulls up with Liam and Corey.

* * *

Liam is out of the truck even before Theo had fully breaked and is heading over to where Mason is still handcuffed to the police jeep.

"Mason!" he said. He grabs him by the shoulders and eyes him, relieved to see no visible injuries. He doesn't smell any blood, just smoke and the scent of Mason's fear and shame and self-hatred. He hugs him tightly and Mason hugs him back, shaken at the events of the day.

"It's not your fault!" he manages to say before Deaton arrives and gently gestures for them to move apart.

Liam joins the others to form a shield of bodies for Deaton to work. Deaton carefully checks Mason over and then says.

"There are traces of sedir on him, but nothing is active. Likely it's just the remnant of what was used to control him."

Corey goes next to be inspected and Deaton finds nothing on him either. He does find traces on Liam and an active band of sedir on Isaac. He finds nothing on Theo, the Sheriff or Argent. Isaac has to endure a dusting of mountain ash that is painful to say the least.

Theo and Corey offer their arms and Isaac squeezes so hard he shatters the bones in their forearms while he grits his teeth to keep from screaming out loud. The rest of the sheriff's station is carefully ignoring them, though Liam, can see some curious faces, some faces that look like their memories are fighting their way to the surface and others whose eyes hold the knowledge of exactly who they are.

Parrish upends an entire water cooler bottle of water on Isaac to wash away the mountain ash and gives him his spare uniform to change into. Deaton checks him again and declares him sedir free.

"Mind though," he says. "Nothing is preventing whoever this is from attaching their magic to us again. We must find out who it is."

"Is there some way that you can trace the source of the sedir?" Argent asked him.

"I might," said Deaton, "But it depends on if the caster holds the sedir long enough. It's like trying to trace a call. The person must stay on the line."

"Well," said the Sheriff, "We have another problem."

"What other problem?" said Liam.

"I can't feel the nematon," said Parish.

Liam freezes. "What?" he says after a moment.

"It cut off about an hour ago," Parish said. "I don't know if I can find it again."

"You were awakened by the Nematon," Liam said slowly. "You've always been able to find it. You were awakened to guard the things that it called to it. How can you be separated from it?!"

"I might still have a connection to it," Isaac voice sounds rough and he looks weak and sick but he's standing straight. "It's actually clearer now that the magic is gone."

"So we can assume that the sedir is cutting of the nematon, then," said the Sheriff.

"We need to find it," said Liam.

"I'll go," said Isaac.

"I'll go with you," said Parrish.

"Mason will stay here," said the Sheriff. "I'm sorry Mason but it's probably safest for you here anyway."

Mason sighed and nodded.

"We'll stay too," said Liam but Mason shook his head.

"Don't you guys have practice?"

"We're not going to practice when someone's taking you over!" Liam blurted.

"I'll stay with him," said Theo rolling his eyes.

"And literally no one is taking their eyes off of me," said Mason. "I'll be fine. What will not be fine is if you get kicked of the team in your last season."

"I won't be kicked off!" Liam protested.

"It's coach," said Theo. "You probably will. Come on I'll drop you all back and come back and keep an eye on him."

Liam shook his head but Theo gave him a look and Liam caved. At least, until they got into the truck and then he glared at him.

"Look," said Theo. Things are sucky for him right now. I think he'll feel better if it wasn't so sucky for someone else okay?" Besides Argent is with him. He'll be fine."

Liam contemplated and then sighed. "Okay, okay fine." he sat in sullen silence for the rest of the ride.

* * *

As he was pulling out from dropping Liam and Corey off, Theo happened to spot someone he knew. It was Mrs James, Hillary's mother. She was leaning on car, clearly waiting for Hillary to come out o school. Mr. James was in the car, waiting to pick her up as well. Just then Hillary bounded out of school, spotted her parents and headed over to them. She was ecstatically happy, practically bouncing in place and she beamed at her mother, chattering at her.

Mrs James smiled, but it was a little stiff. She looked exhausted and not up to her daughters's exuberant mood. Theo saw Mr. James' eyes flicker to the back seat and he winced a little like she was giving him a headache already. Theo snorted. At least somebody was happy today.

* * *

Issac and Parrish wandered through the forest in Beacon Hills in search of the nematon. Isaac was going mostly by instinct, following the connection which was really more of an echo than anything else. Parrish had his head down, and was cocking it from side to side as he sought to regain his connection to the nematon.

"So you're a hellhound?" Isaac asked nonchalantly.

"Yes," said Parrish as he wandered between two trees.

"So do you have to strip every time?"

"If I want to keep from burning my clothes, yes," Parrish replied.

"Huh," said Isaac. He pulled out a kit of icebreakers and knocked out two and tossed them in his mouth. He offered the pack to Parrish, who shrugged and held out his hand. Isaac knocked two of the mints into his hand and Parrish tossed them into his mouth.

"So," said Isaac when they'd walked for a while. "Why don't you burn of your pants?"

"Honestly," said Parrish, "I don't know. But probably because I don't need my groin sprouting fire. Maybe I subconsciously bank the fire?"

"But all of you is on fire," Isaac pointed out.

"Why does the Hulk's pants never burst out entirely?" Parrish asked. "I just stopped questioning it a long time ago."

"Huh," repeated isaac.

"So," said Parrish, when they'd wandered fruitlessly through the woods for sometime. "Am I ever going to find out why you have a connection to the nematon?"

There was a heavy pause. "Scott and the others woke it up right?" he eventually replied.

"Yes," said Parish, "I know that. It's what woke me up, my hellhound side."

"Well, when they did it, they needed anchors. I was one of those anchors."

"Oh," said Parrish, "But shouldn't you have a stronger connection then? I mean, shouldn't we have found it by now?"

Isaac looked away and then Parrish remembered who were the person's who awakened the nematon.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Everyone is," Isaac said. "Let's just find the thing."

"Wait!" said Parrish as Isaac began to stomp forward. "I never knew her. But I can tell she was loved. And I can see the hole she left behind. I know I'll never know what it's like but she was your friend, she was your pack. And I know, I know what that's like, and how it'd feel to lose anyone of you."

"She died for me," Isaac said through clenched teeth, nails digging into his palms.

"She died trying to save her friends," said Parrish gently. He rested a hand on the boys shoulder. "And I know she wouldn't have ever regretted it."

Isaac closed his eyes tightly as if that would stop the tears from escaping. "She should have been here," he said roughly. "She would have figured this out. She was tenacious and fierce and she protected everything she loved and everyone she put under her protection."

"She is here," Parrish said squeezing his shoulder. "She's here in you, in me, in the friends she loved and who loved her back, in the pack she was a part of, in the people whose lives she saved, whether or not they knew it. And she's here in the connection that she left to you to the nematon. You said, that she was tenacious? Well she'd want you to find out what was killing the people she would have protected. I can't find the nematon Isaac but I need you to."

Isaac stood still for a moment and then he wiped his tears away fiercely and closed his eyes, concentrating.

The he was moving so suddenly Parish had to trigger his hellhound speed to catch up to him. He followed Isaac as he jogged through the forest and then after a moment Isaac swerved and started running in a curve. He stopped when they reached the point when he'd veered off.

"We just ran in a circle," Parrish panted.

"Exactly," said Isaac.

Parish paused. "You're saying…."

"The nematon is somewhere inside the circle," said Isaac. "We just can't get to it."

Tentatively Parish reached out a hand and walked slowly in the direction of the circle's centre. He made it two steps and then was skewed away by an invisible force.

"Parish!" said Isaac running forward and stabilizing him.

"There's some kind of force here," said Parrish. "And I don't think we can break through."

"I'll say one thing though," said Isaac. "The nematon wants to be found. So whatever's happening inside there? It doesn't like it at all."

* * *

The Sheriff is on patrol on the coastal road that leads to Eichen. He has more patrols out today, hoping that at least his officers would see something and be able to give them a head's up. But the sheriff is choosing to patrol this road himself though. Eichen is dangerous and he half expects to see Meredith Walker tottering down the side of the road in a vegetative but entirely insistant mood.

Parrish he'd sent home since the deputy had had, no pun intended, one hell of a day. The news about the nematon was deeply unsettling. The sheriff suspects it would be even more unsettling if he could actually understand what the Nematon truly is and what it's function is supposed to be.

Mason is still cooped up in the station and Liam, Theo and Corey are all cooped up on the outside of the cell with him, pressed up against the bars like they could somehow will them out of existence.

The sheriff takes it as a measure of trust that they haven't (a) bent the bars and broken him out yet, or (b) used the keys the sheriff knows, but hasn't been able to prove, that Stiles had copied.

He drives carefully, scanning the sides of the road and the forest that lines it, for any sign of suspicious activity. He's driving carefully but he still doesn't see the woman that is suddenly in the road in front of him. He jerks the wheel on instinct and the truck careens off the side of the road towards the drop off the edge to the sea.

He twists the wheel again in an attempt to veer away from the edge but the momentum is too great and the back of his car skids off the road and hangs over the edge of the cliff. The whole car is already tipping back even as the Sheriff scrambles for his wits and then starts trying to get himself out of the car before the whole thing goes of the edge.

He is interrupted from his escape by the woman who he'd swerved to avoid hitting. She is standing on the front of his car and she is grinning gleefully at him. It takes the Sheriff a moment too long to realise that she is just slightly insubstantial.

A ghost.

And she's here to kill him. She hops lightly off the front of the car and then begins almost cheerfully to push at the cruiser, sending it further over the edge. The sheriff scrambles but the ghost is too fast. She has two thirds of the car over before he can get out and he had to close back his door before he literally falls out of the car itself. While the drop will no doubt be close to fatal, he knows if he goes over it's probably better if he stays in the car.

Just before the ghost pushes him over the edge though, a silver blade cuts straight through her. She screams even as she disappears and whole thing feels very final. The sheriff blinks and there standing in front of the car is the swordswoman.

In the next second she has slammed her balde straight through the bonnet of the car and has both hands on the hilt tugging as she tries to hold the cruiser from slipping off the edge.

"Shoot out the glass!" she yells at him.

Sheriff Stilinski pulls his gun, warns her, "Duck!" and shoot out his windshield and then scrambled through the broken glass over onto the hood.

The car is still sliding back by increments and hte swordswoman is struggling with all her might to keep him from going over. Her feet slides even as the sheriff is halfway out of the car.

She screams, muscles bulging even under her hodie and the sheriff scrambles over the last few feet of car bonnet and then the swordwoman is grabbing his hand and jerking him forward. He flies forward into safety even as his car, and the sword still stuck through it, goes straight over the edge.

The sherriff and the swordswoman sits where they have collapsed on the road and watches the end of the cruiser disappear.

"Shit!" the swordswoman says. She get to her feet, a little stiff and then offers her hand to the Sheriff who stares at her warily.

"I didn't save you to kill you," she says, flatly.

Before the sheriff can reply though there is a sharp sound, like a howl but..wrong. It ends higher, and it's both eager and full of anger and madness.

The swordwoman's head whips around and then she yanks the Sheriff up on his feet without ceremony the sheriff yelps, first with the force of the tug and second because the moment he put weight on his right ankle it buckled. Clearly he'd twisted it sometime when he'd been escaping his own cruiser.

The swordswoman hisses at his injury and then says, "We have to go. Now. Get on my back."

"What?!" said the Sheriff even as she dropped to a crouch in front of him.

"On my back, now," she said. "Unless you want to die."

The sheriff debated for a split second and then got on her back.

"I'm to old for this," he groans as she rises and grips his legs. The swordswoman doesn't deign to reply, just takes off running as fast as she could which is pretty fast by humans standards and pretty much on par with a werewolf's.

The sound of running feet soon catches up to them and the swordswoman hisses and puts on an extra burst of speed. But the disturbing howl comes again and the sheriff knows it's going to catch up. He twists his head and manages to catch sight of their pursuers. It's the spearman, the one that had given them all a run for their money, even Parish.

"What is it?!" he shouts.

"Berserker!" She shouts back.

"I've seen berserkers!" The sheriff shouts, "they're not like that!"

"Not knocking your experience or anything," the swordswoman shouts back breathlessly, "but you've probably only seen one kind."

"There's more that one?" The Sheriff says surprised, voice jolting as he's bouncing with every step.

"There's three," the swordswoman returns curtly and then skids to a stop and stoops, letting the sheriff tumble of her back.

"What are you doing?" Sheriff stilinski asks.

"We can't outrun him," she said. "I have to fight."

"That thing took down a werewolf, two chimeras, a hellhound and three trained humans," the sheriff pointed out.

"That thing has been chasing me for a week and it hasn't been able to catch me," the swordswoman replied.

"You don't have a weapon," the sheriff replied, struggling to stand, bracing himself against a tree.

"I don't need one," said the woman. She pulls down her hood and then the sheriff watches as armour erupts out of her skin. Each plate comes out a separate section of her skin and they fold over and lock neatly into place. In seconds she is fully armoured and settled into a fighting stance. The sheriff is behind her, gun pointing at the fast approaching figure.

The creature, the berserker, comes to a stop a few feet away from the swordswoman and even throughg its mask, the sheriff can see that it's grinning.

It pulls its shield from its back and knocks the spear on it once and then lunges forward at a speed that defies eyesight.

Somehow the swordswoman catches the force of the blow on one arm and deflects it and then she's kicking out at the berserker.

It evades and its spear comes sweeping in again. The swordswoman ducks and twists and punches hard but the berserker brings up its shield and her punch ricochets off.

The entire exchange is so fast that the sheriff can barely follow. While the swordswoman is not the berserker's match is speed, she's cleary far more skilled. In fact the sheriff thinks she's more skilled than any of the pack, including Argent and she uses that skill to her advantage. The berserker has to work to land a hit on her that rocks her and her armour makes it difficult to wear her down. Whenever the sheriff gets a clean shot he shoots but as before it's nothing more than a mere hindrance to the berserker.

In the next minute though the berserker finally lands a solid blow against the swordswoman with the shaft of his spear.

She bends over form the force, coughing as air is forcibly expelled but even among her pain she grabs onto the spear and whirls ripping it right out of the berserker's hands.

The berserker laughs and the sound is haunting. The sheriff can feel chills run down his spine because the laugh is so gleeful and so wrong. Like cheering on murder.

The swordswoman is gripping the spear tightly and her muscles are trembling but not with fatigue. This is something the spear is doing. But before the sheriff can ask what it is, she tightens her grip briefly and then relaxes. The berserker's grin is gone and the swordswoman gives him a wicked smile even through her face plate and settles into a stance.

"Valkyrie!" The berserker hisses.

"Odin's soldier," she replied. "What happened to you? Why do you answer the call of someone else?"

The berserker snarled and then leaps forward. The swordswoman, the valkyrie, swings the spear. Spear and shield crack against each other and then the combatants push away from each other and goes forward again, blow after blow cracking the night.

The berserker is no less deadly for using only his shield. The valkyrie is clearly struggling to even hold the berserker spear but she moves like it almost doesn't matter. Still she'll tire soon, the force of holding down whatever effect the spear has on her doing what the numerous blows of the berserker could not.

Before either opponent can gain the upper hand though, sirens wail and an unmarked police car comes screeching down the road. The sheriff doesn't even need to see inside to know its Parish. A familiar blue truck is right on the heels of the car followed by a black SUV. The cavalry is here.

The berserker stares at them all and then lunges at the sheriff instead. The valkyrie has to twist at an awkward angle to block him and the berserker takes advantage, switching attacks mid motion and snatching the spear out of the valkyries hands.

By the time the cars have arrived, the berserker is long gone.

* * *

 _ **So did anyone guess what the swordswoman was? Or the spearman for that matter?**_

 _ **Review and tell me!**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Surprise! A chapter. It's basically a lot of talking though. Sorry. Hope you guys enjoy anyway.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

Werewolves, chimeras, humans and a hellhound tumble out of cars and converge on the armoured figure.

"Hold up!" the Sheriff shouted in an attempt to regain order. His years of barking orders pays off and people stumble to a stop.

The valkyrie is tense but she hasn't run yet so the Sheriff takes it as a good sign.

There is silence as everyone waits for the sheriff to speak.

"First off, someone lend me a shoulder. I'm not so young as to be hobbling around on a sprained ankle." There is another stunned pause and then Parrish moves forward and slings one of the Sheriff's arm's over his shoulder, bracing his weight.

"Good," he said when some of his weight was taken off his ankle. "Now I think we all need to have a long tall. All of us," he added pointedly to the valkyrie.

The valkyries lifts her chin defiantly but then her shoulders drop a little. There is a sharp snick as she allows her armour to unlock and return to her skin. The other's gape and the sheriff wants to join them even though he'd seen it before.

Once his shock had worn off though he focused on the woman standing in front of him. She was young, 22 or 23 he guessed. Dirty blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail and she looked out at them with piercing blue eyes. He face was all angles and her nose was straight and long. Without her hoodie or armour, he could see that she was indeed very muscular but also very lean. By the way she held herself, he guessed that she was injured and also that she was definitely trained to fight.

"Who are you?" Liam asked.

"Valiana," the valkyrie replied. Then her eyes flicked back to the sheriff. She patted around her waist and pulled out a little flask.

"Here," she said to the Sheriff.

"What is it?" the Raeken kid demanded.

"Healing ale," Valiana replied calmly.

"Ale?" said Isaac cocking his head at the valkyrie.

"Ale's a viking drink right?" the sheriff said. Valiana nodded.

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Mason.

"I'm a valkyrie," Valiana said simply. "This is one of my talents. If you like I'll drink it too."

"It doesn't have to hurt you," Liam pointed out. "It could be harmful to him alone."

"If I wanted to kill him, I would have done so already, Liam Dunbar," the Valkyrie replied tartly. "Now are we going to stand here in the middle of the road and wait to see of the berserker decides to come back or can we go somewhere else?"

* * *

They all end up back at the sheriff station since Mason was supposed to be under lock up. This time though, the valkyrie is placed in the jail cell. Melissa meets them there to check out the sheriff to ensure that he's not hurt worse than the ankle.

"Alright, why are you here?" Laim demanded.

"I'm here to kill someone," the valkyrie replied. Her voice is not cold, just calm and steady.

"Who exactly are you here to kill?" Theo asked.

"The vanir," Valiana replied.

"The what?" Parrish asked even as Mason exclaimed:

"A vanir!"

"A what?" asked Isaac.

"Vanir's are part of the pantheon of norse gods. Thor's mother Freja was supposed to be vanir to Odin's Aesir."

"They're not gods," Valiana said calmly. "They're preternaturals with the ability to use sedir.

"And one of these vanir are here," said Liam.

"Yes," said the valkyrie. "She's the one who has been controlling the ghosts."

"She?" said Mason.

"Yes, it's a she. I can't tell you who she is because I don't know but this vanir is definitely female."

"How can you tell?" Theo asked.

"I've been following her for awhile," Valiana replied. "She got me a couple towns back which is why I wasn't able to stop her from settling here." She shrugged. "Besides her grocery bills usually have tampons on them so I figure she's female."

There was general silence for a moment while everyone took in that statement. Liam took a moment to appreciate just how Stiles-like that statement was as well. Stiles would have somehow gotten a hold of someone's grocery bill, just like how he'd gotten Theo's parking ticket.

"Okay, so lady with magic," said Isaac. "What does she want."

"The old take over the world ploy," the Valkyrie replied.

"Did you just quote The Mummy?" Mason gaped.

"The Mummy 2," Theo corrected absent-mindedly and then froze at the looks they all gave him.

"Yes," said Valiana. She folded her arms and settled into an almost military stance. "She's using the Nematon. It's why she came here. Your Nematon is weak because it's cut down. It's the only one she could subvert." Valiana shrugged. "She tried with other nematons before, it didn't work out in her favour."

"Did you have something to do with that?" the Sheriff asked.

Valiana gave him a genuine smile. "Not really. Most of my work was in trying to keep her from the nematons in the first place. The nematons themselves were too much for her to subvert. She got badly hurt trying both times I think."

"Can we go back to taking over the world?" Liam asked. "How does she plan on doing that using the nematon?"

"I'm not sure but I think she wants to turn it into a warden tree," Valiana replied.

"Like the trees the norse used to plant for good luck?" Argent asked.

"Yes," said Valiana, "Warden trees attract voror. If she has control of a warden tree she can control the voror."

"The vor-what?" Corey spoke up for the first time.

"Voror. Protector spirits. Descendants of the norse have them. They follow the person from birth until death. Then they are released. But the vanir has been capturing them at the moment that the ones they are protecting die."

"The ghosts," the sheriff said in sudden understanding and Liam glances at him in surprise and then back to the valkyrie for confirmation."

"Yes, the ghosts as you call them. Voror are known to take the shape of the ones they protect."

"But why did you kill our last stab victim?!" Melissa bursts out. "He was in a stable condition!"

"But critical condition," Valiana replied. "I didn't kill him. He died on his own."

"And his throat just managed to split open?" Theo asked sarcastically.

"No, I accidentally sliced his already dead throat when dispatching his voror," the valkyrie said cooly.

"So you're saying you really didn't kill him," the sheriff asked carefully.

"Yes," Valiana replied simply. "I'm only guilty of mutilating his corpse. But I really wanted to dispatch the voror before it could do more damage."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Liam asked seriously.

"You mean you weren't listening to my heart werewolf?" the Valkyrie raised an eyebrow.

"Some liars are just that good," Theo smirked.

"Ah, yes. But not all of us have stolen a heart chimera so ours tend to actually flutter when we lie."

Theo lunged for the bars but corey and Liam grabbed him and pulled him back. Theo struggled for half a second before calming and pulling his arms away from them.

"Why are you following her?" Isaac spoke up before anyone else can say anything. "What did she do to you? Why spend years following this person?"

"Why does your pack protect Beacon Hills?" Valiana replied.

"You're saying you're doing this out of the goddess of your heart?" Mason asked.

"It's my duty," Valiana replied sharply, "I am a valkyrie. I am a protector born of old norse blood to protect my people. I carry the warrior-dead of the norse to the gates of valhalla but never have I loved doing it before their time. This vanir is killing my people and I'll be damned if I just let her get away with it while I follow after her and pick up the dead that was slain by her hand!"

There was dead silence for a moment and then Valiana took a deep, shaky breath and ran her hand through her hair.

"I don't care if you don't believe me or if you don't trust me," she added softly, "I have to stop her."

"Alright," Liam said steadily after a moment. He ignored the looks the others shot him, choosing to focus on the Valkyrie. She straightened up and let him lock his gaze with hers. "We'll help you stop her because she's killing our people as well but if you're somehow lying or you turn on us, valkyrie or not we'll tear you apart. Yeah?"

The valkyrie's eyes warmed and a hint of a smile played on her lips. "Yeah."

"Good," said Liam. "Now tell us everything you know."

* * *

"She's a vanir so I'm guessing she's been around a lot longer than most of us. Whether she'll look her age however is another thing. I have a feeling she doesn't. But it's likely that she'll wear the guise of an adult, makes things easier."

"Can you give us a height, body shape, anything?" he sherriff asked.

"No. She was careful to keep herself out of my sights. But because she's vanir she is associated with fertility, wisdom, nature and magic itself."

"Aren't vanir's also supposed to see the future?" Mason asked.

"That I haven't noticed," Valiana admitted. "What she can do is scry."

"The pool of water thing?" Parrish asked, frowning.

"The what?" Liam asked.

"Using a reflective surface to see what is happening somewhere else," Valiana explained patiently. "It's most often done with a bowl of water in the old times."

"Oh, like Lord of the Rings when the scary, elf lady made Frodo watch images in the water!" Corey said triumphantly.

"Uh…." said Liam never having watched Lord of the Rings.

"You've never watched Lord of the Rings?" The valkyrie was giving him a disbelieving look.

"Not the point," Liam said hastily. "Does the cry-thing mean she can be watching us right now?"

"Scry," replied the valkyrie, "And yes. But she doesn't do it often, especially when she's working a whole lot of other magic like she's doing now. That's why she's only been controlling you all in short bursts."

"You know about that?" Isaac asked frowning.

"Why did you think I didn't come to you all earlier? You're all liabilities."

"A little warning would have been nice," Theo said.

Valiana shrugged. "I'm used to working on my own. Besides this pack has a reputation for how they like to deal with things. Since I'm planning to kill this bitch, I wasn't going to be spending my time arguing with you."

The pack glances at each other and then Liam says. "We'll have that argument later."

"Back to her abilities, you said that she is associated with nature. Is that how she's able to use the nematon?" Parrish asked.

"It's easier for her that it would be for another magic user," the Valkyrie confirms.

"Wait a minute," said Mason. "Nature magic. The man-eating trees!"

"Precisely," said Valiana. "Your druid will have to confirm it but I think whatever she's doing with the trees is helping her to control the nematon."

"You mean, she's using those peoples deaths to change the nematon to a warden tree?" Melissa asked.

"That's my theory," Valiana replied gravely.

"Wait what!?" said the sheriff.

"The nematon is jump started by death," Isaac said softly. "It makes sense."

"But wouldn't making the warden tree in that way….make it evil somehow?" Mason asked.

"Did you think she was gathering the voror to help the world go green?" Valiana asked sarcastically. "Why do you think I've been killing them? They've been turned dark."

"Alright next question," Argent spoke up. "Berserker. You told the sheriff that the spearman was a berserker."

"He was," nodded Valiana. "A wolf Berserker."

Mason tapped frantically on his phone no doubt seeking the wisdom of google.

"You called him Odin's soldier," the Sheriff remembered.

"They are Odin's soldiers," Valiana replied. "Which is why seeing one here under the orders of a vanir is very strange."

"You think she has him under control too?" Liam asked brow furrowing.

"I don't know," said Valiana. "But he's dangerous."

"We noticed," Theo said dryly.

"My fire didn't stop him," Parrish said.

"Oh he felt it alright," said Valiana. "He just didn't care. That's why he's a berserker. If you kept hitting though I think it will affect him."

"How do we stop him?" asked Liam. "Can we? And can we get him out from under her control?"

"Got a bomb?" Valiana asked. "Honestly, I don't know how to stop him not without my sword anyway. And even if I did have it, it'll be dicey. As to getting him out from under her control, if she has him, I suppose we gotta kill her."

"I blew up a berserker with a claymore before," the sheriff volunteered.

The valkyrie's eyebrows skied up. "Nice. But a wolf berserker is fast and skilled. You want that trick to work again, you'd have to be very clever and very fast. Speaking of what kind of berserker? Bear or boar?"

"Bear," replied Mason from his phone, most likely having found the right page on wikipedia.

"Figures," Valinana nodded. "I doubt you'd have been alive if you'd met a boar berserker."

"They're worse?" Corey asked sounding disturbed.

"Oh very," Valiana replied. "Met one. Never ever want to have that experience again."

"I am seriously contemplating moving,"Corey said to no one in particular.

"Don't go to France," Isaac advised him.

Liam blinked and made a concerted effort to get the conversation back on track.

"Mr. Argent, do you think the cells in Eichen can hold a vanir?"

Argent frowned. "That I'm not sure of."

"I'll call," Parrish volunteered and stepped out the room to call Cawell.

There was silence while they all waited for Parrish to get back. The Valkyrie apparently decided she'd had enough of standing and sat cross-legged on the floor of the cell.

"So," said Theo while they waited. "Tell us about yourself Ms. Valkyrie. After all you seem to know a lot about us and we don't really know much about you."

Valiana's eyes flickered to his for a long moment and then she said. "My name is Valiana Brynjar. I'm 24 years old. I am descended from a norse family line on both sides and ended up a valkyrie. Yay. A good chunk of my earliest years have mostly been unexciting. When I was sixteen I started to get into the preternatural world I was born into and I travelled as much as my school schedule permitted me. I started college when I finished high school but had to drop out because a psycho vanir was trying to taking the world. Happy?"

Before anyone could reply, Parrish came back in. "Cawall says they don't have a cell that can hold a fully powered vanir, not for long at least."

"Shit," said Liam. He glanced around at the adults and quickly moderated it to, "Shoot."

"Hmm, that might not be a problem," Valiana murmured.

"What do you mean?" asked Melissa.

"Look I've only been chasing this vanir for four years," the valkyrie said.

"Only?" Mason murmerd.

Valiana shot Mason a look. "But she's been active for much longer. She first came on my radar when she killed the last valkyrie that was hunting her."

"Why?" asked Argent.

"Because that valkyrie was a mentor of sorts to me. Neither of my parent's bloodlines had produced a valkyrie in some time so when I started showing signs of being one they called a friend to help me with the transition."

"And why does any of this matter?" Liam asked really curious. "Not that I'm not sorry for your loss or anything."

Valiana waved her hand dismissively. "My mentor left notes behind. She had postulated that the vanir is depowered somehow."

"Wait she's doing this much damage and she's not up to full strength?!" Mason said horrid.

"Quite possibly," replied Valiana a sympathetic note in her voice. "Of course she'd gotten to most of my mentor's notes before I did. I only managed to rescue some of them."

"Who could de-power a vanir?" mused Isaac thoughtfully.

"Another vanir or even an aesir," said Valiana. "But my mentor thought, and so do I, that it'd definitely take more than one...and they probably wouldn't survive doing it."

"Oh," said Liam.

There was a moment of silence and then Isaac's eyes widened. "Mason!"

"What?" Mason jumped as Isaac whirled towards him.

"Do you remember?!"

"Remember what?" asked Mason confused.

Isaac snapped his fingers. "The last sedir user Deaton ran across."

Mason's eyes lit up. "Deaton said he was already dying."

"Wait what?" said Liam looking from one to the other. "Uh, could he have been dying from old age or something?" Liam ventured.

"One way to find out," Mason replied. He dialed Deaton.

"Hey Deaton," he said when the veterinarian picked up. He glanced at the clock, grimaced and then apologized for waking him. "So uh, we were talking and we wondered, that sedir user you'd met when you were younger, was he dying of natural causes or…" There was a pause as Mason listened and then said, "Well we have a valkyrie we're talking to here and she said that another vanir could depower the vanir we're fighting….Yes it's a vanir but the vanir doing the depowering probably wouldn't survive doing the depowering. That has to be one of the weirdest things I've ever said."

"Doesn't beat 'what if the darach was an emissary to the alphas'" Isaac murmured.

Liam hushed him but Theo asked, "Stiles?" Isaac nodded.

"Uh-huh," Mason nodded. "Alright. Thanks." He hung up.

"So there's a chance that it couldn't have been natural causes,"Mason announced. "But it's 50-50. Deaton said he was pretty old but that he'd always thought that the vanir talked too 'young' for his age." Mason shrugged. "It's not much but…"

"There's a chance," the valkyrie spoke up.

"There's a chance," Liam confirmed.

"Well let's hope," Theo said. "Because if not, that means we might be up against a fully powered vanir and she may just get tired of toying with us soon."

* * *

 _ **Tell me what you all think. Please, please, please! I think this is one of my first major OC's that I'm introducing to this series so I'd love to know what you all think.**_


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm pretty sure this chapter sucks. I'm sorry. On the plus side, I updated, yay. Thanks to all of you who are still following this.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf.**

* * *

Sheriff Stilinski left the rest of the pack to hobble away and take the aspirin that Melissa had so thoughtfully brought for him. He downed the pills and then pressed the cold, plastic bottle of water to his forehead.

"Are you okay?" a voice said behind him.

He jumped and then sighed. "I'm getting too old for this, you know," he said to Liam.

The boy snorted, clearly not believing him which was sad because the Sheriff was being pretty serious right now.

"You could always get the bite," Mason offered from behind Liam.

It was the Sheriff's turn to snort. "And become a drama queen in leather?"

"Hey!" said Liam, while his best friend tried and failed to hide his laughter.

"No really though," said Liam. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the Sheriff said. "This will ache a bit," he said gesturing to his ankle, "But that's par for the course."

The boys nodded solemnly. "Good," said Liam.

"Wait a minute," said Sheriff. "How did you guys know I needed help? I didn't get chance to call anyone for help."

"Lydia," said Mason. "She called Liam. Parrish traced the GPS on your cruiser."

The Sheriff blinked and then asked. "Someone told them I was okay right?"

"Why do you think Stiles hasn't blown up your phone yet?" Mason replied. "I've been keeping him says he'll call later."

The Sheriff nodded. "Thank you," he said with feeling. "So," he said after a moment, changing the track of the conversation. "Do any of you have any idea who this vanir can be?"

"No," said Mason sounding aggrieved. "We might be able to narrow it down with Valiana's information but…."

"It's still going to be a needle in a haystack," the Sheriff finished.

"I hate to say it," Liam said, "But we might just have to wait for her to make another move."

The three of them shared depressed looks.

* * *

They leave Valiana in the jail cell in the meantime for lack of anywhere better to put her. Valiana for her part doesn't seem to mind the mistrust which Liam finds is pretty decent of her. Mason opts to stay in the adjoining cell since he's still not sure he's free of the vanir's influence and really, really doesn't want to burn something else down.

Parrish volunteers to watch both Valiana and Mason while the others go home. Corey drives the sheriff home and stays there with him just in case the berserker or anymore voror's appear to try and kill him. Liam tries to stay with Mason but Mason and Theo have some sort of silent conversation and then Theo drags him out to his truck. Melissa and Argent leave as well. Argent will stay on guard just in case something comes for her.

Altogether the rest of the night is pretty anticlimactic and Liam couldn't be more grateful. He drops into his bed amidst the remains of his homework and falls asleep. He hears Theo snort and then lamp is turned of plunging the room into darkness.

* * *

Liam is pretty sure the healing factor is the only thing that allows him to have energy to wake up in the morning. He drives over to the sheriff station first thing only to find that Mason is in fact sound asleep.

In the next cell, Valiana says without moving from where she's leaning against the wall, eyes closed, "He went to sleep at like 4am."

"Hey," Liam says. He pauses and parses through the implication of her statement. "Did you go to sleep?"

"Hmmm not really," she said. "I've just been dozing lightly."

"Uh, do you need anything?"

Her eyes flutter open and she sits up and stretches slow and languid. "Breakfast and a shower."

"Uh, right," Liam stutters. "I guess Parrish will take care of that?"

The valkyrie looks amused. "Never thought about life in jail have you little wolf?"

"I'm not a kid!" Liam bristles before remembering that he's not yet eighteen and is in fact a kid. "I mean...I'm not…You know what I mean."

Cold, blue eyes twinkle at him as the valkyrie arches an eyebrow. "Sure," she says so easily Liam knows he is being mocked. His spike of temper is so sudden it surprises even him and he clenches his fists tightly just as his claws shoot out and ding into his palms. He stands for a moment hands shaking as he fights down the roar of rage and finally eases his palms open.

Valiana had tensed in the interim and then said slowly. "I had heard of your temper. I didn't realise that it was held by such featherlight weights."

Before Liam could get angry all over again, she says. "I'm sorry."

He blinks and then sags a little. "No," he says, "I'm sorry. My temper is usually better than this."

"Lack of sleep," Valiana offers as explanation. "Everyone gets cranky because of that."

"Maybe," Liam says. He eyes Mason through the cell bars again and sighs, hating that his friend was still there even if it was his choice.

"Do you know anyway to stop her from controlling people?" he asked Valiana.

She shook her head. "I wish I did but no."

"Has she ever tried to control you?" Liam asked curious.

"Once," said Valiana.

"And?"

The valkyrie grinned but it was more of a baring of teeth. "It didn't work out for are warriors, never soldiers. We don't listen to orders very well."

"Oh," Liam said, brain whirling. It was like trying to give an order to an alpha. It didn't freaking work unless the alpha agreed to follow the order. "You have a built in immunity of sorts."

"Yes," Valiana nodded.

"That'd be useful," Mason mumbled from where he was lying down.

"Mason?" Liam said.

"You gonna be late for school man," Mason told him.

"I don't think…" Liam began.

"You have to take notes for me!" Mason said. He pointed in a direction that was probably meant to indicate the school but was off by several degrees. "Go to school."

"Fine!" Liam said. "Text me."

Mason gave him a thumbs up and appeared to fall back asleep. Liam gave an awkward wave to Valiana and headed to school.

* * *

"Is everything okay?" Nolan asked quietly. He paused. "Mason isn't here."

"It's….being handled," Liam replied.

"Good because we have a scrimmage coming up this week," Nolan murmured.

"What?" Liam said blinking. "We've barely got the team together. Coach handed out positions last week."

"I know," Nolan told him, grimacing. "Apparently it's like a test thing so that the teams will know just how much they improved over the season."

Liam rolled this over in his mind. "The two coaches are having a coaching competition aren't they?" He asks matching Nolan's grimace.

Nolan slumps. "Yep."

Liam sighs. "Great."

* * *

The rest of the day is quiet after the excitement of the night before and Theo hates it. He can feel the edges of the whole situation creeping up on him, catching on the knobs of his spine as it slinks up his back. Something is brewing. The air is heavy with it. It doesn't help that he has confirmation that the vanir could be looking at any of them at any time.

He is bad tempered and his expression is so dark the rest of the farm workers take one look at him and then promptly keep their distance for the rest of the day. He is glad. He keeps flexing his finger s to keep his claws from coming out in response to the threat that hangs over him.

He manages to keep his bad mood under wraps enough to get through the work day and then hightails it back to the Dunbar-Geyer home, looking forward to someplace more familiar and less vegetation covered. Being on a farm isn't fun when your adversary has a thing for nature.

He yells hello to Mrs. Geyer and runs up the stairs to shower. By the time he comes back downstairs Marcy has managed to clear most of the dining room table from her various notes and pamphlets.

"Liam's having an extra long practice today," she tells him. "And his dad is picking up another shift at the hospital. One of the other doctors came down ill."

"Ouch," Theo says.

"Don't I know it," she says sighing. "Anyway, can I trouble you to run an errand for me before dinner?"

"Uh sure," Theo says.

"Great," says Marcy. "Iona gave me this recipe for sweet bread and it came out amazing so I wanted you to take a piece of it over to them."

"No problem," Theo says easily. He waits while Marcy wraps the sweetbread in foil and hunts out a bag from the bag of bags that most households seem to somehow accumulate.

"Thanks," she says handing the bag to him. "I would have sent Liam seeing as how he might have gotten a chance to talk to that gorgeous redhead," she winked at him. "But he's got practice."

Theo snorts with laughter and Marcy laughs with him.

"No really," she says. "I was beginning to think he'd never get over Hayden."

"Me too," Theo says rolling his eyes. "Can I assume dessert is sweet bread?"

"Yup," Marcy says waving him out the door.

Theo laughs again feeling his black mood receded just a little bit and began the walk over to the James' house.

* * *

It doesn't take him long, under two minutes really, before he's ringing the James' bell. There's a yell from inside, 'I'll get it!' and patter of feet and then the door opens to reveal Hillary.

"Theo!" she says looking surprised and pleased. "What are you doing here?"

"I come bearing sweets," he says lifting the bag. "Hello Mrs. James," he adds as she approaches behind Hillary. "Marcy said your sweet bread recipe is to die for so she sent over a piece in thanks."

"Oh," Mrs. James laughs. "She didn't have too!"

Theo shrugs. "I'm just the messenger. You can't shoot the messenger," he replies blinking charmingly at her. She laughs and Hillary opens the door wider.

"Come in," Hillary says.

"I'm really here to just drop this off," Theo says, "I'm not planning to impose."

"Oh nonsense," Mrs. James says. "Come in, Theo. I fact I may have to use you as a messenger as well. I made some apple pie from your mom's recipe and I was planning to send some over."

Theo attempts to protest and finds himself yanked inside by Hillary who says. "Don't bother. You'll end up with apple pie anyway."

Theo raises his hand in surrender and follows to their kitchen.

Mrs. James removes a scrumptious looking apple pie from the oven that floods his senses and makes him want to drool. The dread doctors weren't really ones for baked desserts.

She starts to cut out a section when Hillary joins them and chides lightly. "Mom give them a larger piece. You wouldn't want them to think we're stingy would you?!" It's said in a clearly joaking manner and Mrs. James laughs and hip checks Hillary but Theo is frozen.

He is frozen because he knows this scene. He's been one of the actors in this scene before. He's choreographed this scene before. He's handed out threats veiled as jokes before. He can scent the fear in the air, read the strain in body language of one and the promise of violence in another. To the outside eye it's nothing. It's less than nothing. The moment is over before it's barely begun but Theo Raeken has had a lifetime of conning people. He's had a lifetime of pretending to be someone he's not.

He has had fake parents before.

Mr. James comes down the stairs in the next moment saying, "Evi I'm going out."

Hillary glances back at him and says, "Sure!" before turning to Theo and explaining, "My dad wanted to name my Hillevi instead of Hillary but since mom won out he turned it into a nickname."

Theo's smile is razor sharp and is more of a slash in his face than an actual grin.

"I see. That's norse right? The name?"

There was a pause and the whole air in the house was flooded with tension.

"Yes," Hillary says slowly.

"Is that your real name?" Theo asked. "It would fit I guess. It's way for suitable for a vanir than 'Hillary'." There is a sudden clatter as Mrs. James drops the knife. Her hands are shaking. Mr. James is frozen at the foot of the stairs.

Hillary smiles slowly and charmingly. "Well," she said voice a little deeper than before, "I didn't anticipate this. Tell me chimera, how did you know?"

"You're not the only one to play happy house before," Theo says. He's shifting his weight already, ready to attack or to defend himself. "I should have known though," he continues. "I should have freaking known the instant Liam was attracted to you because Marcy was right, he isn't over Hayden."

Hillary...no Hillevi laughed. It was older than he'd heard from her yet. This wasn't a girl and she was done pretending.

"You're quicker on the uptake than he is though," she says still sounding amused. "Now what are going to do Theo Raeken?" She laughs as he flicks out his claws. "You're in my house. Do you really think you can hurt me?"

"I can damn well try," Theo growls at her.

"You won't," she says flatly. "You won't because if you make one move against me I'll kill them," she says jerking her head to her pseudo parents. "And I assure you, I can do it before you ever reach me with those letter openers you have on the tips of your fingers."

Theo is still even as rage floods him.

"You're a monster," he says.

"You're one to talk," she says casually.

"I know whose monster I am," he says.

"You're a pet on a leash," she replies dismissively. "I'm a power you don't mess with." A wall of force he doesn't even see slams him into the opposite wall and pins him there. Hillevi walks over to him and smiles and he struggles against her hold.

"You're going to leave chimera and you're going to carry a message for me. It's for your alpha-in-training, the lovely little co-captain of the lacrosse team, the beta of the vaunted Scott McCall. I'd like a meeting, a real one. The winery. 1 am."

"And if he doesn't come?" Theo says narrowing his eyes at her.

"Let's just say he won't want to miss it," she says, "The consequences would be...appalling. Isn't that right?" She asked over he shoulder. Mr and Mrs. James, both white as a sheet nod their heads jerkily. Hillevi turns back to Theo smiling pleasantly. "Tell him I look forward to our meeting!"

* * *

 _ **Sadly not very dramatic. Still tell me what you think!**_


	11. Chapter 11

**I know it's been a while but I hope you guys enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Wolf. All OCs are mine.**

 **Music: Hidden Citizens- Nowhere to Run.**

* * *

The rage that floods him is both searing hot and screaming cold. There is a bitter taste in his mouth and the scent of terror and helplessness still sticks to the insides of his nostrils and he can't displace it any more than he can displace the look of empty hopelessness in their eyes.

He was that monster once, the monster that haunted the Jones.

He feels sick. Tastes blood bubbling in the back of his throat and feels the cold unforgiving floor of the hospital as he races in sheer terror to escape his sister and her wrath and her vengeance.

His heart pounding in his chest is both nightmare and relief. Monster it says with each thump. But it beats on the side of light now. Hell, he's tied to a damn beacon.

Theo takes a deep breath and then stalks over to his house in search of his alpha in training. He has a message to deliver.

* * *

Liam blinks. Something is different, just for a moment, before the odd sense of dissonance fades. He frowns but steps out of the shower in the locker room and proceeds to change into normal clothes. His muscles still carry a pleasant warmth from the long training session but his healing has kicked in making the pain fade away.

He makes his way back to his car, waves goodbye to Corey and throws his bag into the car through the window. His fairly good mood lasts until he arrives to a home flooded with the delicious scent of sweet bread and filled with his mother's chatter. They talk for a few moments before Liam heads up to the room he shares with Theo to drop off his stuff.

He comes to an abrupt stop outside of his door. The scent of anger is leaking through the cracks in the doorframe, thrumming out like an almost physical force. It's potent enough that Liam takes a moment to center himself, whisper his mantra, tie a tight leash to his own temper. Then he carefully pushes open the door.

Theo is sitting on the edge of his bed, elbows on his thighs, arms hanging between his legs, eyes a brilliant chimera yellow. He doesn't say anything, just tracks Liam's movements as he carefully stows away his lacrosse gear and then tosses his backpack on his computer chair.

"What's going on?" Liam asks, when he's facing Theo once more.

"You have a meeting," Theo says. His voice is devoid of inflection despite the anger that is still rolling off him.

Liam blinks at the unexpected opening. "...With who?"

"The vanir," Theo says simply.

"Wait what," Liam says stepping forward instinctively. The sudden tensing of Theo's muscles freezes him in place and then he takes a measured step back.

"Should I be worried about her using you to rip out my throat right now?" he asks quietly even as his own body shifts into a ready position.

Theo's laugh is harsh, sarcastic and humorless. "I was wondering the same thing about you," the chimera informs him.

Liam blinks. "What?"

Theo gives another of those awful laughs. "She's had her claws longer in you than anyone else."

Liam feels cold even as his anger builds. "How do you know that?"

"She told me," Thoe says.

"You met her," Liam says flatly. "Face to face."

"Face to face," Theo agrees.

Liam swallows. "Who is it?" Theo looks at him for another long moment as if to judge how he would react.

"Hillary."

"What!" Liam makes another half step forward before forcing himself to stop moving. "Hill- Hillary is…." Visions of red hair and a beautiful smile flood his mind's eye. "But, but Valiana said that it was most likely an adult!"

"She doesn't need to look like an adult when she has fake parents," Theo says bitterly.

Liam freezes again. "Oh," he says. Then, "But Hillary? I mean, are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Theo snapped. "If I didn't have a healing factor I'd show you bruises I got when she slammed me up against a wall with her magic!"

Liam tries to find someway to deny this, to deny that it was possible before he wonders why. Why shouldn't it be Hillary? Why couldn't it? Their pack has a history of being torn into by people close to them, by people they'd thought innocent. That strange feeling of dissonance comes back to mind. He breathes in, out and then searches himself.

It doesn't take long, barely a minute before he lets out a harsh breath, claws digging into his palms. He drops hard onto one knee and then looks up at Theo.

"I don't...I don't feel anything for her, " he stutters out. "I don't like her. I, I'm not even attracted to her...not like I was before. I…." He blinks, "I'm still in love with Hayden!"

He'd been mind-screwed again.

"Shit! Shit! Fu….Fudge cookies!" He tacked on remembering that his mother was downstairs. The anger hits a second later, washing out his horror. He bares his teeth, eyes flashing and gets to his feet. He wants, dearly, to cross the street and apply his claws to the vanir that had been killing innocent people in his and his alpha's territory. Theo's grip on his arm stops him.

"You can't do it by yourself," Theo said flatly, his own anger still very much alive. "She's too powerful and we don't know what she'll do to the James'."

The sun, the moon, the truth. Liam chants in his head. The sun, the moon, the truth.

He pulls his arm free and retracts his claws. "Fine," he says to Theo. He thinks for a second and then says, "We have to go to the station."

Theo nods and then they both slip out the window and head to the truck.

* * *

The others gather, summoned by the terse text Liam sends. The sheriff tries to get something out of him but Liam shakes his head. The anger is coming and going in waves. The low ebb of the tide is filled with horror. He can only say this once, explain this once.

Theo, next to him, isn't much better. His eyes alternate between raging heat and psychotic cold. Mason knows him well enough to know something bad has happened, to know that they've found out something awful. Valiana is patient, with corded muscle standing starkly out in her arms, veins pulsing hard, pushing against her skin. In her eyes is understanding. She's tangled with the vanir before; indirectly but she knows what it's like.

Argent and Isaac are the first two to arrive, followed by Parrish who'd come of shift not too long ago. Corey comes in with half a sandwich, hair still damp from a shower. Melissa tumbles in tired and cranky. Deaton is last, calm but eyes hooded and keen.

"Alright, everyone's here. Now you two want to tell me what's going on?" Sheriff Stilinski asks.

"Theo had a meeting with the vanir today," Liam forces through jaws that want to stay clenched in anger.

The other's snap their heads around to Theo in a unison that's almost creepy.

"How? When? Who is it?" Mason breaks the silence first.

"Hillary," Theo says. "It's Hillary."

"Wait, what?" said Corey. "Hillary from school?"

It clashes with Melissa's, "Who's Hillary?"

"Liam's new neighbors," Mason answers Melissa. "They...She goes to school with us. She and Liam...uh…"

"Magic," Liam said. He wants to punch something. He wants to scream out his mantra.

"Oh shit," Mason says.

There is a frisson of understanding that passes around the group.

"Damn," breathes the sheriff. He squeezes Liam's shoulder and Liam can't help the pathetically grateful look he shoots him.

"She wants a meeting," he said after taking a deep breath. "The winery. One am."

"You alone?" asked Isaac.

"She didn't specify," Theo said. "But she's very strong. She pinned me up against the wall like it was nothing."

"I'm not surprised," Valiana spoke for the first time. She fixed her eyes on Theo. "She's been under the guise of a teenager?"

Theo nods. "Traveling with fake parents that she's holding hostage," he says sourly.

"Interesting," Valiana says in the kind of voice that makes people want to run far, far away.

"If she didn't specify then we're going together," Argent says, tone booking no argument. But he waits for Liam's nod. Liam doesn't hesitate to give it. He's a mess and he knows it.

"Do you think we'll get a chance to take her down?" Isaac asked, frowning.

"Doubtful," Deaton replies. "If she is as powerful as Theo and Valiana claim, we will need considerable power of our own to help defeat her. And I am afraid I don't quite match up to the task."

"I don't like meeting with her at all," Melissa said.

"We have to," Liam says.

"I know," said Melissa, "But what if she tries to take all of you out instead?"

"She will have a very hard time doing so," Valiana says with dark certainty.

"It's a meeting," Mason says, "And if we don't go, we don't find out what she wants or what she might be planning. I think if she had really wanted, she could have seriously damaged us already. But that was bound to bring repercussions and she doesn't seem to want that. So I think we might be safe. This is our one time to, to, negotiate I guess. Until we figure out how to actually stop her."

"Mason's right," Parrish said. "We have to find out what she really wants and maybe we can get a clue on how to stop her. Or how to save anyone that she might be targeting."

The sheriff ran a hand down his face. He looked tired and incensed all at once. Liam sympathized.

"I'm going to that meeting," Liam said firmly. "But all of us are not going."

"I am!" Theo snapped.

"Theo, Mason, Parish, Argent, Deaton and Valiana are coming with me," Liam replied. "The rest of you are back-up in case something happens to us." He eyes Isaac and Corey meaningfully. "Call Scott if there is nothing you can do and get everyone out."

Corey nods and after a moment Isaac does too. He understands that Laim is placing his trust in the beta that he's barely known and acknowledges it.

"Good," said Liam, with a briskness he doesn't feel at all. He turns to Argent. "Is there anything we can do to um, fortify our position at the winery?"

"Not much," Argent says frowning. "We should get there before her though."

Liam nods and looks at the station's clock. It is only nine. He feels at a loss of what to do with the intervening time.

The others notice and quickly sort themselves out, Melissa going home and Deaton to the animal clinic. Mason makes grabby hands at the backpack Liam had brought with him in some subconscious hunch that he'd need to pass time and they settle down to do homework. Theo and Valiana brood in the corner while Parrish and the Sheriff try to go back to work.

* * *

All too soon though, the station's clock says 12:00. Deaton's car pulls up right on the dot and idles outside as he waits for them. The sheriff unlocks Mason and Valiana from their respective cells. Liam hands Mason his bat, knowing Deaton probably has his batons for him. Valiana gets handed a shock baton from Argent. Her lips twitch in a smile but she nods graciously and proceeds out of the station.

They take two cars. Argent, Parrish and Valiana go in one car, Liam, Theo and Mason in the next. Deaton follows in his own. The winery is empty is when they pull up. It stands tall, austere, with an air of dark menace in the pale light given by the half-moon peeking out from the clouds.

The door is open, a yawning black maw, swallowing up light. The spiral on the side seems to mock them.

Revenge. It whispers. Rage. Death. Fear.

War.

Liam hops out of the truck and listens hard. Theo does the same and they stand there for a few long moments, searching for anyone's heartbeats, breathing or movements. Finally, they give the all-clear to the rest and the pack hops out of their respective vehicles.

The winery is empty. There is no vanir, ghost or berserker hidden in its dark folds so the pack sets up the portable lights they brought with them, stake out advantageous spots and settle in to wait.

* * *

Hillary is exactly on time. A car pulls up at the winery with a minute to spare and it's precisely one am when she stands in the doorway.

Liam stands in the middle of the semicircle of lights they've set up. Mason is to his right and a step behind him. Theo mirrors his position on Liam's left. Argent is on one of the catwalks and Valiana is on the other, opposite him. Deaton is behind Liam, outside of the lights. Parish is against the winery wall, in the middle of the two parties.

Hillary takes it all in with a quick sweep of her eyes and her lips, painted a red to match her hair, curve up into a smile. At one point in time, that smile would have made Liam's stomach flutter. It does nothing to him now and that fact sours his temper further.

"Well," she said, "How nice of you to come to my little meeting." She walks in properly and another figure follows her. The berserker trails behind her, giving a gleeful smile through its mask. Liam can smell Valiana's rage before it is blotted out by Theo's. And it's easy, too easy to give in to his own. But he can't. He can't do this or they'll have lost whatever advantage they would have gleaned and people might die. Liam has no doubt that this was, in fact, part of her back-up plan, when he manipulated him.

So he chants 'the sun, the moon, and the truth' in his head, fights his hands free of the urge to make fists and squares his shoulders.

"What do you want?" he said.

"Oh? To business already? I thought we'd chat a bit. Homework, classes, lacrosse."

"What," Liam gritted out, "do you want?"

Hillary sighed and tossed her long, red hair over her shoulder. "People these days...no manners."

"If you think we're going to have tea and cakes with you when you've manipulated us, and hurt people in our town then you're wrong," Mason said. "But if you want chit chat, how about: we have school tomorrow so can you hurry it up?"

Hillary laughed.

"Fine. What I want is of no consequence to you," she said. "What I want for you to do, however, is."

"We won't do anything for you!" Theo snarled.

"My, my," Hillary said, "Heartless does describe you best. You could be dooming innocent lives if you don't agree."

Theo jerked forward and hit Liam's outstretched arm.

"What is your request?" Argent calls down.

Hillary smiles up at Argent. "Simple. I want you to stay out of my way. I want you to leave me alone."

"We can't do that!" Liam snapped.

"Or else?" Parish asks on top of his reply.

"Or else people will die," Hillary says sweetly. "More people that is."

"What?" Mason sharply.

Hillary shrugs. "I require the voror of the norse-descended. They will die. There is no way of stopping this. You may fight to protect them if you wish. But the instant you come for me, the instant any one of you thinks about laying a hand to me, I will make all those I have my threads in, to kill themselves. They will, of course, do certain things for me before they do so."

"What?!" Liam stutters out.

"How many?!" demands Parrish.

"Oh deputy, you can't think I would tell you this," she says sweetly. "But not as much as you might be expecting. Key figures is all. Power plant controllers, heads of hospitals, fire department heads. Club bartenders. All people who can cause conditions that will cascade into far bigger problems. And increase the death toll significantly."

"Why?" Theo says voice hard. "Why control them and not us? Why not keep us out of the way for yourself."

"Because it expends too much power," Valiana spoke from above them. "Normal humans are easier to control. Preternaturals are much, much harder. Chimeras...I do not think she can control them. Too other to what she's known. And she is currently expending much of her power in other directions. She can't spare the power to control you, not for anything longer than short bursts of time or through subtle means. But subtle means nothing now that you know about her. This is her only option."

"My dear valkyrie, haven't you spent enough time following in my footsteps?"

"I haven't spent enough time on your trail," Valiana says coolly. "Had I, you would be dead."

"My, aren't you confident little valkyrie? I am far older than you. I have seen and done things you cannot comprehend."

"So," Valiana said calmly, "have I."

"Why do this?" Liam says. "Is it only for power? Or," he pauses eyes narrowed, "Is it to get revenge on those who depowered you?"

For the first time since she entered the winery, Hillary is angry. Her rage is a visceral thing.

"So you are depowered," Mason says softly. She turns a burning glare to him and then back to Liam.

"All those who dared to do such a thing are dead," she said in a voice that could strip layers off the ground. I don't care for revenge. They have paid for their folly by their own hand." Then the rage fades and she smiles, lips curling up impish and delighted.

"Besides," she says walking over and inspecting the spiral placed in the winery wall, "who wants revenge when you can have power!"

Her hand splays over the center of the spiral and power swirls around her feet. The trees outside shake in a wind that isn't there and the winery wall buckles once and then tears apart until the spiral is gone and all that is left is jagged pieces of metal glinting in the moonlight.

She turns back to face them.

"Choose," she says. "Will you doom your town to stop me?"

"No."

It is Mason who speaks but Liam doesn't stop him, doesn't need to.

"No. But we will find a way to stop you. And when we do, all the power in the world won't be enough to save you."

Hillary laughs. "That's a pipe dream Hewitt. But dream a little dream I suppose. Ta-ta. Looking forward to working with you!"

And then she's gone, ghosting out of the doorway. The berserker follows her and in a minute they're both gone, driving back to town."

Liam wants to slump as the tension goes but he can't. He's vibrating with rage. There's nothing on either side of him to hit so he yells and drives his fist into the floor. It's not enough. He punches it again and again and again, yelling each time before Mason grabs his shoulder.

"Liam!"

Liam glares at him, eyes yellow, breathing hard and fast.

"We're gonna get her," Mason says. "We're gonna get her."

* * *

Review please! Tell me what you think!


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